


Life is a fucking Nightmare

by nyilis



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Delta!Violet AU, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Like really slow, Past Minerva/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Physical Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Violet won't be here for a good portion of it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2020-04-06 08:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyilis/pseuds/nyilis
Summary: "If you were there that day those raiders came...He would have abandoned you, too."





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A what if: Marlon traded Violet to the raiders instead of the twins.

“Minnie…” Violet groaned. Minerva was tasked to go on a hunting trip with Marlon and Brody. Sophie and Tenn wanted to go fishing with her, so she asked Vi to cover for her. It’s not that Violet didn’t mind going on a supply run for her. It’s just that she had to go on a supply run with Marlon and Brody. She was friends with Brody and could tolerate her but Marlon…

“C’mon Vi, it’s no big deal. Plus, how many times have I had to cover for you? Huh? Where you’ve wanted to be off alone, to be lookout duty or in the greenhouse because you wanted to brood.”

Violet felt a little hurt at the comment. She did like to be off on her own from time to time. She just liked to get away for a bit and enjoy the quiet. And it’s not like she had to cover for her that often.

“It’s just, I’d rather not have to go on a supply run with Marlon and Brody, considering,-”

''Seriously,” Minerva interrupted, “You’re pouting because you don’t want to spend a few hours with Marlon and Brody?”

Violet didn’t respond and just crossed her arms, staring at the ground and wanting to avoid looking at Minerva.

“Figures.”

“Fine. I’ll do it,” Violet finally spoke up. “It’s just that Marlon and I tend to be at each other’s throats half the time and I feel like things have been tense between me and Brody lately and I don’t know why. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Minerva softened her gaze a bit towards her girlfriend. Maybe she was being a bit of a bitch about it. “Hey look, I didn’t mean it like that ok? How about when you get back we can just hang in the bell tower and cuddle. Or whatever you want to do. Just us for the rest of the evening, how’s that sound?”

Violet gave it a thought for a moment before giving an answer.

“Uh, yeah sure, that sounds… that sounds good. Yeah we can do that.” Just before Violet or Minerva could say anything else they were interrupted by a sudden yell.

“Violet! It’s time to get a move on, we don’t have all day,” Marlon called out.

Violet turned to Minerva. “I should probably get moving before he sends his dead cat over to come get me." Minnie and Violet both laughed at that. 

“I’ll see you at the bell tower?” Violet asked.

“Of course.”

Minnie stepped forward and gave Violet a hug. They both held each other for a bit before Violet reluctantly let go.

“Stay safe.” Minnie said to her girlfriend.

“I will,” Violet replied. And with that, along with Marlon and Brody, she left for their hunting mission.

* * *

Marlon, Violet, and Brody have been out for almost three hours now and still somehow came up short on food. The most they had caught were two rabbits and a turkey. Surprisingly those were still around. They ran into the occasional walker or two but luckily they haven’t run into too many walkers. Other than that the whole hunting mission has been… awkward. Violet has been complaining that if they weren’t going to catch anything else soon, than they should probably just head back and take what they have. Better than risk getting everyone killed.

The whole mission has been quiet for the past 20 minutes. Save for the few groans of the undead and the wind blowing every now and then. Violet was the first to speak up.

“Ugh, we’ve been out here for hours Marlon. As much as I’d love to find more food as the next guy, we can’t be out here forever. We should just head back and make do with what we have.”

Marlon shared a glance with Brody who was walking right next to him. He tilted his head back towards Violet while still walking.

“We can’t give up now Violet. We’ve got nine other kids to feed, including ourselves, and they’re all depending on us. So you can quit whining and look for more food, and then we can go home.”

Violet shook her head in dismay and continued walking, looking for more rabbits to hunt. Even a crow at this point would do. Brody started to slow her pace to match up with Violet’s.

“What’s got you all antsy to get home?” Brody playfully asked trying to cheer Violet up, “You have a date tonight or somethin’?”  
Violet went beet red, considering she did have plans with Minnie later, but she didn’t need to know that. Instead she opted to give her a different response.

“Maybe I’m just tired and hungry and I want to go home. And even if I did so what?” Violet replied giving the bird.

Brody chuckled. “I’m just teasing ya, Vi.”

Marlon chuckled for a second as well. Suddenly he heard a loud rustling within the tree lines. Marlon raised his hand up signaling both of them to stop. “Hey, wait, wait. Shhh, do you guys hear that?”

Brody and Violet halted, both raising their weapons for whatever was coming. Suddenly, out of the brush came a woman with short brunette hair and two men walking beside her. One balding with heterochromia eyes, and the other with a mustache and goatee. The two groups noticed each other and both immediately raised their weapon with Marlon being the only one with a long range weapon while the other group all carried rifles. The brunette was the first to speak up. “Which one of you is in charge here?”

Marlon stepped forward. “That would be me,” he said not once lowering his bow, “What do you want from us?”

The brunette haired woman continued to talk, lowering her gun slightly. She gestured to the others to do the same.

“We need recruits to join our war. Up north. Our community against another. What do you say care to join us? In exchange, you'll have food, showers, clean clothes to wear, and you’ll be trained how to use a gun. And from the looks of it, you could use it,” she said gesturing to Marlon’s bow, Violet’s clever, and Brody’s torch torch.

Marlon turned towards his crew before returning to the woman. “No thanks. We do alright for ourselves. But we appreciate the offer. We’re not interested in joining any war.”

The balding man with heterochromia looked displeased. “Lilly,” speaking up to protest. Lilly held up her hand to silence him. “Thanks to my friend here I guess introductions are in order. Maybe if you knew us then maybe you’d change your mind. I’m Lilly. This is Abel and Armando. And you are?” 

“Yeah, no thanks. Still not interested. I’m not selling out my friends for some war. The name’s Marlon by the way.”

Lilly looked between him and the two girls standing beside him. She shared a glance with the two men standing beside her. With a quick hand gesture, all three raised their guns.

“We tried playing nice, but now we’re going to have to do this the hard way. Either join our war or we’ll take you ourselves. Your choice,” Lilly threatened.

Brody felt her chest tighten feeling immediate panic. “Marlon do something! You can’t just let them take us.”

Violet stanced herself ready to make an attack at a moment’s notice and ready to flee. “Just shoot them already!”

“Uhhh…” Marlon panicked.

“Tick tock Marlon.”

“MARLON!”

“TAKE VIOLET!”

“What?!” “What the fuck!” Brody and Violet yelled simultaneously.

“Ssshhe’s a... she's a great fighter, and she... and she…” Marlon stuttered, “Please… just leave the rest of us alone.”

“Marlon, you _fucking_ coward!” Violet screamed in protest.

Lilly stepped forward to Marlon. “‘Rest of us?’ There’s more of you?”

Panic filled Marlon’s eyes as he realized what he said. “I-I no, I mean... yes, no-”

Lilly raised her rifle at Marlon. “I’ll cut you a deal. Since you’re being so cooperative we’ll leave you be for now. But we’ll be back,” she warned. “Abel,” the bald man perked up, “take Violet.”

Violet stepped backwards ready to attack. “Don’t come near me!”

“Violet just do as they say,” Marlon urged.

Abel walked up to her and smirked. “Hey there, blondie.” 

The next thing Violet knew, she was kneeling down on the ground clutching her stomach after Abel jabbed her in the gut with the butt end of the rifle. Abel got behind her and lifted up by her arms.

“Thanks for cooperating Marlon. We’ll see you around. Just be ready next time and keep your promise.” And with that Lilly and her crew walked off the way they came with Violet in tow. Marlon exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Brody was nearly full on hyperventilating at this point. “W-we got to get her back. We need to tell the others about this.”

Marlon panicked for probably the fifth time today. “What? No way we can’t- can’t do that!”

“Why not?!”

“Y-you heard what she said. They’ll kill us. Everyone’s going to hate me. I just sold out Violet,” he tried to reason.

“They’re not going to hate you! If we just explain-” 

“ENOUGH!” Marlon interrupted, “Not one word of this to the others, or I’ll trading _you_ the next time they come!” he threatened. Brody froze.

“What do we do? We can’t go back to the school without Vi. The others will want to know what happened!” she pleaded.

“We just tell them she was killed by walkers. They’ll buy it. It’s not an unlikely thing to happen.” Brody didn’t protest and just hung her head in shame. Marlon was being a coward and just sold out a friend to save his own skin.

“Come on. Let’s just get home.”

* * *

Marlon and Brody soon approached the school. Mitch who was on lookout duty noticed and ran down to open the gate. Everyone was in the courtyard and saw them return. The twins were to first to speak up. “You guys are back.” Minerva simply stated. Sophie took notice that all of them were present except Violet. “Where’s Vi?” she asked.

Marlon and Brody shared a glance of fear, Marlon’s turning into one of anger, hoping Brody would keep quiet. Surprisingly she didn’t say anything and looked away.

“She… she got killed by walkers,” she said. Everyone in the courtyard gasped in shock and horror except Minerva. She had a look of pain and felt as if her heart was ripped out of her chest.

“She’s... dead?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah. There were just too many of them. I tried to save her but I couldn’t. I’m sorry,” Marlon lied through his teeth. Louis looked at his longest friend. Confused as to what happened, hearing his other longest friend is dead. Almost like a sister to him.

“Are you sure she’s dead? I mean, did you-”

“Yes Lou, she’s dead. I’m sorry.” That did it for him. He silently stormed off to the admin building. No one noticed but, he shed a few tears along the way.

Minerva felt like she couldn’t breathe. The last thing she said to Violet. They were going to the bell tower. Everyone went their separate ways until dinner. They were too distraught at the news of Violet’s ‘death’. When dinner time finally rolled around, everyone was present except for Minnie. Instead she was at the top of the bell tower staring at the stars. Silently crying inside at the loss of her girlfriend. 

“Now I see why you always liked it up here, Vi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> inspired by an ask answered by Kent Mudle.
> 
> https://kmudle.tumblr.com/post/181606416611/if-marlon-had-to-trade-another-kid-besides-clem


	2. Rough Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: 11/16/2019
> 
> not my favorite chapter mainly because I feel like it's too short, but I felt like I had to get _something_ out  
> I might keep editing and updating this chapter every now and then until I'm satisfied with it's length.

**1 Year Later**

An explosion sounded off in the distance of Ericson’s Boarding School for Troubled Youth. Not too far out past the old safe zone. Minerva sat up from the wall she was laying on looking towards the direction of the noise. It sounded far off, but it still sounded like it was close by. Two hunting parties, one with Marlon, were already out there so hopefully they’d have a handle on it. And that they would be alright. Sophie was sitting across from Minerva and looked in the direction of the explosion. “What do you suppose that was?”

Minerva didn’t face her. Something about that explosion set off alarm bells for her. An _explosion_ on its own was enough to worry about, but it was loud enough to indicate that it was nearby, which was a bit too close for comfort.

“I don’t know. I just hope whatever it was won’t be a problem for us. Or that Marlon won’t do anything stupid and put the others at risk,” Minerva says, that last statement with a bit of malice that didn’t go unnoticed by her twin. Sophie gave her look of concern. “Min, is this about Vi-”

“Don’t,” Minerva cut her off sharply, “don’t make this about her.” Sophie frowned at her twin sister. She knew where this was headed.

“Are you sure this isn’t though?” Sophie bit back.

Minerva opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a loud, shrill, whistle. It caught the attention of both twins, who turned to see Willy rushing down the ladder of the lookout tower to open the gate. In came Marlon and Louis both carrying what seemed to be unconscious bodies. One of them seemed to be a little boy no older than their younger brother, Tennessee. The other seemed to be a girl about their age. Minerva opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a loud, shrill, whistle. It caught the attention of both twins, who turned to see Willy rushing down the ladder of the lookout tower to open the gate.

In came Marlon and Louis both carrying what seemed to be unconscious bodies. One of them seemed to be a little boy no older than their younger brother, Tennessee. The other seemed to be a girl about their age. The little boy Marlon was carrying suddenly woke up and immediately elbowed him in the jaw, dropping him to the ground, clutching his jaw in pain. The boy runs around in a frenzy like a panicked sheep as the rest of the kids in the courtyard try to corral him and get him to calm down. He looks around the courtyard, looking for the girl that was with him. Upon seeing her being carried by Louis, unconscious, he runs towards him and punches him the knee, causing him to drop her to nurse his wounded joint. The boy gets in a defensive position in front of the girl, ready to protect her. He reaches for a weapon in his back pocket and panics upon not finding one.

“Don't hurt Clementine."

"We're not going to hurt you," Louis said slowly approaching the kid, "we just want to help you and your friend here. You two were in a pretty bad wreck and your friend looks like she needs medical attention. We can offer that if you let us,” Louis tried to say as calmly as he could. The kid looked back at the girl who was apparently supposed to be his guardian and then back to Louis.

“You promise you won’t hurt her?” Marlon seeing as how the kid seemed to have calmed down enough approached him. “We promise. We want to help. Louis, why don’t you entertain our guest.”

“Ok...” he says. Louis grins and tugs on the collar of his trench coat. “Come on little man, wanna see something cool? I’ll show you.” 

The twins watched the commotion unfold from the wall they sat atop of. Sophie glanced back at her sister before bursting out laughing, much to Minerva’s chagrin.

“Well now, talk about a show, huh?” Sophie

Minerva glowered at her twin sister and punched her in the arm. “Knock it off Sophie,” Minerva chastised. Sophie brushed her off, playfully shoving her arm.

“Relax, Minnie. You worry too much. And come on, you gotta admit that was pretty funny to watch seeing everyone running around like headless chickens.”

Minerva just deepened her frown. A small part of her agreed with her twin but didn’t want to admit it. She was more concerned with the safety of the rest of the school and the pessimistic side of thought that it could’ve gone worse. One way that she was completely different from her twin. Sophie was always a more bubbly, and as much as she loved her sister she had to admit, a bit air-headed. But that’s how twins supposedly worked apparently. Yin and Yang. Minerva the slight pessimist, and Sophie ever the optimist.

“I just don’t see what’s so funny about it. You know, it could’ve been a lot worse. Someone could’ve gotten seriously hurt,” Minerva lectured.

“Yeah, but no one did, did they?” Sophie countered.

Minerva rolled her eyes, fed up with her sister’s antics for the day. “Whatever. I’m going to lie down,” Minerva replied coldly. Sophie scoffed at her sister while adjusting her beanie. 

“You’ve been lying there for the past half hour. Take a walk or something,” Sophie teased. Minerva didn’t answer and continued to stare up at the sky. “Fine. You’re no fun,” Sophie pouted as she went back to playing solitaire with the other half of the deck of cards that she swiped from Louis. (He didn’t need to know.) 

The rest of the day went by relatively uneventful, after the whole fiasco of the newcomers that showed up on their doorstep. Other than that, it was kind of quiet, peaceful even. As Minerva stared up at the sky with her hands behind her head, for a moment, she could pretend that the rest of the world wasn’t dead. Literally. The quiet setting eventually lulled Minerva to sleep for a quick short nap. It’s not like her and Sophie had an errand for the day anyway. Plus, the day was almost over so a quick nap wouldn’t hurt.

“Hey, Soph, wake me up for dinner will you?” Minerva asked. Sophie responded only with an audible “mhmm.” Content for now, Minerva finally let sleep overtake her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reasons for delay: one part procrastination, one part writer's block and half of that debating between using 1st or 3rd person POV, and 3 parts being stuck in 'family' vacation hell. 
> 
> After I got back from vacation, I procrastinated even more and ended up playing skyrim all day for a week. Next chapter might be out sooner but no guarantees.


	3. Welcome to Ericson's Part 1

Minerva slowly woke up on her own accord and was immediately startled for the second time today by a loud whistle, except this one was quick and short. She sat up to see Tennessee running over to point out the new girl from earlier was awake and walking with Marlon. Sophie noticed her sister wake up and looked in the direction she was staring at. The new girl made eye contact with the two as they stared at her like a pair of creepy Siamese twins before she turned her attention back to Marlon to listen to whatever he was saying.

“She’s cute,” Minerva heard her sister say. She turned to her in shock. “What?” Minerva asks stunned. “She’s kind of cute. Don’t you think?” Sophie repeats. Minerva hesitates to give her an answer, knowing her mischievous sister will definitely use this as fodder to tease her later. She thinks she’s spent too much time with Louis.

“Yeah, I guess. Why?” Minerva answered too quickly. The twins made eye contact with the new girl one last time before they saw her walk off into the admin building, before continuing their conversation. “Just asking. I mean what? I can’t just admire someone?” Sophie teased.

“No. I- mean… yes-” Minerva stuttered. Sophie burst into tears laughing while Minerva was turning beet red. “I’m joking. Jeez Minnie, you’ve known me for what, almost two decades now. Lighten up.” Minerva still wasn’t amused. And she had to admit she had a point. After all these years she still can’t deal with her antics by now. She puts up with them but how she’s able to is beyond her. 

“I swear to god, Sophie I will push you off this wall…” she said bitterly but without any malice that would hint she actually would. Sophie was about to respond back but was cut off once again by Marlon approaching. He said he needed them to meet him by the gate to help out and clear a path for the hunting party they sent out. Something about too many walkers for them to get back safe. After that he left to go get Louis and the new girl that arrived. Sophie briefly smiled at her sister before jumping off the wall and heading towards the gate. Minerva sighed in defeat and grabbed the deck of cards she left behind and followed after her. She met up with her by the gate where they waited for Marlon to get back. 

Soon enough, he came back with Louis and the new kid in tow, calling out for Rosie. Minerva and Sophie heard him say something about asking Louis if he gave her her weapon back and that they need her help clearing out the walkers, with the increased walker activity lately. 

“The dead are attracted to _noise._ Maybe that got their attention.” Minerva sarcastically commented.

“Min…” Sophie chided.

“Look, I didn’t know any of that was gonna happen. Sorry if it caused you guys problems,” the new girl said. Minerva was confused and suddenly felt like an ass, not expecting her to be genuine. Louis sensing the tension decided to speak up to defuse the situation.

“Hello Clementine. I’m Minerva. Nice to meet you.”

“Whatever,” Minerva said offhandedly. Suddenly, Willy was shouting overhead from the lookout tower giving them a heads up that it was time to head out. Marlon and the twins gave their own parting words before going off to clear the walkers. Louis stayed behind for a second to apologize on Minerva’s behalf. 

“Don’t mind Minnie. She uh… grows on you. I promise,” he said as he slung a chair leg with nails embedded in it over his shoulder. Clementine gave him a look of bewilderment hoping for some clarification on what that was supposed to be.

“Oh this? It’s a chair leg. I call it ‘Chairles,'” he said with the most shit eating grin before walking off to join the rest. Clementine just shook her head and followed suit. Soon they were all killing off walkers for the hunting party to get back safely. Minerva had to admit, Clementine was pretty good up against the walkers, especially with her little trick using a kick to the knee and stabbing its head once its down. But Minerva decided to stick her good ‘ol fireman axe. How she found one at a boarding school, she had no idea. It was effective enough so no questions asked. She looked over to see her sister dealing with a walker herself, hacking at it with her machete. Unbeknownst to her was a walker coming up right behind her. Minerva ran up to it as fast as she could and swung down the axe on its head before it could get to her. Sophie looked back seeing her sister had her back.

“Thanks.”

Marlon was at the meetup point by the bridge calling over to their attention.

“Took you long enough. We can’t keep this up forever,” Minerva said sarcastically.

“No kidding. Where’d all these walkers come from?” Brody asked. Marlon, not one to waste a second immediately spoke up. “We can talk when we’re back inside the gates. Keep an eye out for stragglers.”

The group turned to head back inside with Clementine and the twins soon walking side by side. Clementine and Minerva shared a glance at each other. “I guess you’re pretty good. All things considered.”

“Thanks,” Clementine replied. Minerva turned her attention back towards the walkers. “Let’s deal with the rest so we don’t attract more to the school,” Minnie said, as she and her sister tag-teamed one ahead, with Minerva striking it to the stomach, while Sophie finished it off with her machete. Soon after all the walkers were cleared out, and a brief skirmish with Aasim having to be saved from one by Clementine, they all headed back inside.

* * *

Once inside, everyone headed off to do their own thing while they waited for dinner knowing it would be awhile since Omar was cooking. Minerva saw Sophie heading towards their graveyard with Tenn following behind. She ran to catch up with her.

“Hey, Soph. Where are you going?” she asked already knowing the answer.

“To the graveyard. Just thought... I should give her a visit y'know? Want to come?” Sophie asked.

“Sure.” Minerva said flatly, which caught Sophie off guard considering her relationship with her. Sophie decided not to pry. The trio walked off to the graveyard with a bouquet of flowers they picked up earlier. Violets. How fitting. It had been about a year since they had lost Violet. It was still kind of hard to believe she was gone. They stood in front of her grave for about a few minutes before they heard someone walking up behind them.

“Hey, guys.” The sudden sound made the twins jump and they looked up to see it was Clementine and her kid, whose name they picked up earlier, AJ.

“What is this?” AJ asks looking down at the makeshift cross used for a grave.

“It’s a graveyard,” Sophie answers for him, thankful and also saddened by the fact that he probably never learned what a graveyard was. Clementine inquires if they still do that, considering not many people do any more.

“More or less.”

“So who’s buried here?” Clementine asks gesturing towards the grave in front of them. Minerva gives a loud audible sigh that’s a mixture of frustration and annoyance.

“Uhmm... No one actually. Just, stuff. Belonged to a friend of ours we lost. Violet. About a year ago,” Sophie continues. She and AJ watch Tenn as he places a bouquet down on Violet’s grave. AJ continues watching in awe and looks to Sophie hoping she would explain more. AJ turns to Clementine, asking if he can do that too.

“Yeah, I think that’d be a very nice thing to do, AJ. C’mon,” Clem says giving permission to him. Minerva pulls out her own flowers and hands it to AJ. The twins and Clem watch as he places the flowers on Violet’s grave, Tenn expressing his gratitude to AJ, paying respects to someone he didn’t know and when he didn’t have to. After that, Clementine and AJ walk away to do what they were doing until dinner. Sophie turned to her sister who still seemed pissed off the whole time.

“Min, talk to me. What’s wrong?” Minerva still refused to face her sister, letting out a huff of frustration. “Minerva.” Sophie hardly used her sister’s full name unless she was serious. Her sister still wasn’t answering. Sophie decided to try a bit more aggressive approach, since it was the only language her sister knew, she learned over the years. She had to admit, her sister can be sweet when she wanted to be, but other times she could be... kind of toxic.

“Minerva, seriously what’s wrong. Do you not like Clementine or something? She and AJ expressed sympathy for Violet’s death, for someone they didn’t even know! And they didn’t have to. So what’s the problem?” Sophie said with a biting tone. Which seemed to work because it got a response out of Minerva. Before she could respond they overheard Louis shouting that dinner was ready.

“I’ll… explain it after dinner,” Minerva answered. Sophie wasn’t satisfied with her answer but she guessed it was better than nothing. The twins and Tenn walked towards Omar to get their share of food and headed over to a bench to eat. They were soon joined by Brody for dinner.

“What do you guys think of Clementine?” Brody asks, but not loud enough to be overheard by Clementine herself. Sophie gave a smirk towards her sister, Minerva already hating where this was going.

“I like her. I think she's nice,” Tenn said innocently, not really having much more of a reason. Minerva rolled her eyes. Her dear brother ever so innocent. Sophie didn’t take her eyes off her sister enjoying every second of the conversation.

“Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” she rested her head in her hand, “she certainly held her own against those walkers.” Brody looked towards Sophie, wondering why she seemed to be acting coy towards her sister. She ignored it and turned her to the girl in question.

“What about you Minnie? What do you think of her?” she asked innocently. Minerva looked at her sister who had the most shit-eating grin on her face. She was hoping to avoid this conversation.

“She’s alright I guess,” Minerva said all too nonchalantly. Brody gave her a stern look, wanting to know more.

“Really? That’s it?”

“Yep. That’s it.” Brody wanted to say more but decided to leave it at that and got up to go bed. And just in time as she saw Louis holding up a deck of cards, knowing what that meant.

“Oh, god, goodnight.”

“Minerva, Sophie! It’s time!” he announced, calling them over. 

Minerva and Sophie looked at each other and nodded before getting up and joining them for a game, Tennessee opting to stay behind and draw. After Louis announcing the game of the night was war, and an explanation of the rules, the game began. Everyone drew a card, with Sophie pulling the high card. Sophie gleed in triumph.

“About AJ…” she began carefully, knowing it wasn’t exactly her place to ask but still curious to get to know more about her. “What happened to his parents? You don’t exactly look like brother and sister…”

“His dad was killed by some asshole,” Clementine answered.

“What about his mom?” Minerva asked.

“Long story, sad story.”

Sophie decided not to press further and continued with the game. Clementine won the next round.

“Hey, I win.”

“Hey, you do. So what do you want to know?” Louis responded.

There was a long silence that fell over the group that Louis decided to fill with whistling that Marlon started dancing along to. After what felt like forever, Clementine finally came up with a surprisingly fun question. “What’s up with your haircut, Marlon?” 

“Oh boy…”

“Uh, what do you mean?” he asked with an irritated look.

“She means it looks like you cut it _yourself_ with a weed-wacker,” Minerva remarked.

“Yeah, blindfolded,” Sophie added.

“Uh, I look cool.”

“If you say so,” Sophie snorted. 

“I say I look cool…” Marlon said looking at Clementine with murder in his eyes. After everyone made fun of Marlon’s haircut, the game proceeded to the next round. Louis drawing the high card.

“Have you ever dated anyone before? A special somebody in your life?” he said giving Minerva a shit eating grin, while she gave him a glare knowing full well what he was doing.

“I… met a boy one time,” Clementine started gaining everyone’s genuine interest.

“And?” Louis probed.

“And we were… friends,” she continued. 

Sophie wasn’t buying it. “Just friends?”

“I don’t know what you’d call them… but I had some kind of feelings for him. Maybe not exactly love, but… something,” Clementine laid out, allowing everyone to take in what she revealed about her supposed “love life.” With that they continued on to the next round. Marlon drew the high card.

“Ha, I win. So, Clem… You can’t have been alone this entire time. Who used to take care of you?”

“The first person who taught me about survival was Lee.”

“What’d he teach you?” Marlon asked.

“Lots of stuff.”

“Most important thing?”

“How to say goodbye...” Clementine said solemnly, thinking back to when she had to shoot Lee so many years ago. The game continued onto the next round with Clementine winning. “I win again.”

“You do indeed. Ask away."

“Worst injury you ever saw?”

“Saw someone’s head impaled on a rock,” Sophie quipped.

“I saw someone have their intestines pulled out all the way out. Like, ALL the way. It goes on for a while. We got a lot of guts,” Louis marked gleefully.

“I saw a guy get his face beaten in with a crowbar. Badly. There wasn’t even any skin left.”

“Ouch,” Louis commented.

“He deserved it.”

The next round Minerva was the winner, much to her dismay. “Have you ever been in a group before? Or is this your first one?” Minerva asked. Clementine was taken aback and thought of all the previous groups that had let her down.

“I’ve been apart of several. They all fell apart in the end.”

“Well this one won’t,” Sophie chimed.

“Maybe…” Clementine said skeptically. 

Soon the last and final round of the game came with Louis as the winner. “Ever… actually, never mind,” Louis backtracked.

“What? Ask it,” Clem insisted.

“It’s not a fun question.”

“Ask.”

“Ever had to kill someone you loved?” he finally asked. There were a few people, and some people that she cared about she had to kill, some _after_ they had turned. Nick, Kenny, Jane, and most importantly…

“Lee. His name was Lee. It was the same day I found out my parents were dead.”

“That… sounds like a rough day."

“Yeah, worst day of my life,” she said dryly, “I think I’m done playing for tonight.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Marlon concurred. With that, Clementine and AJ headed inside to turn in for the night. The twins, Marlon, and Louis were left feeling heavy hearted about hearing Clem’s past. Marlon sighed at his best friend’s unintentional in-sensitiveness and got up to catch up with Clem and AJ. Louis looked at the twins hoping they would know he didn’t mean anything by it.

“Guys...” 

“We know you didn’t mean any harm Louis,” Sophie started, “but-’”

“There’s a line,” Minerva cut in. Louis gave a solemn look knowing he went too far. Sophie gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“We should probably turn in too. Come on, Tenn,” she called out to her little brother. Tennessee looked up from his drawing and walked over to his sisters. Soon everyone made their way to their rooms to turn in for the night. Once the twins got to their room, Minerva realized she needed something from Violet’s old room. Reluctantly, she got off her bed to go to her dead former girlfriend’s room.

“Hey, Soph I need to get something from Vi’s old room. Mind putting Tenn to bed?” Sophie didn’t opt to comment on Violet’s room and answered her instead.

“Sure, no problem.”

“Thanks. Back in a bit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*sticks out leg like a stripper in the 60s*_ still alive bitch!
> 
> this chapter was originally going to be a part of chapter 2 but it was getting too long  
> and the next chapter was going to be written with this one but I decided to break it up.
> 
> anyway procrastination is fun.


	4. Welcome to Ericson's Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's this? me not waiting a whole month to get a new chapter up? it's more likely than you think!  
> don't get used to it because this won't be a regular thing. also can you believe this story is already 41 pages long

It was quiet as Minerva walked the hallways towards Violet’s old room. She hadn’t been in there in almost a year and she was actually dreading it. She thought about just turning around and heading back to her room and getting what she needed in the morning. Before she could decide that, she found herself right in front of the door. Too late to turn back now. Minerva took a deep breath to prepare herself. Just grab what she needed and leave. She opened the door and was surprised to find Clementine there. 

“Sorry, didn’t know Marlon set you up in here,” she said shutting the door behind her, “I just needed to grab something that-” Minerva trailed off seeing as the thing she was looking for was in AJ’s hands. “Oh.”

“What?” Clementine asked.

“That’s… what I was looking for,” she pointed to the knife that AJ seemed to be playing with. “It belonged to Violet.” Clementine gave her a confused stare.

“Uh, I just, really need it back.” AJ looked to Clementine with a look between confusion and shock. A long and heavy pause filled the room before Clementine finally spoke up.

“You should give it back AJ. It’s not ours.” AJ nodded solemnly complying with Clementine’s request.

“Thanks. It’s just… this means a lot for me to have back,” Minerva lamented. AJ stood up to hand the knife back to her. She grabbed the knife and stared at the blade for a bit before putting it in her pocket. 

Minerva turned her attention to the room they were staying in. She took note of Clementine’s stuff already laying around. “Looks like you guys are settling in nicely,” Minerva said semi-sarcastically.

“Yeah. Is that okay?” Clementine asked sincerely.

“Maybe,” Minerva shrugged, walking over to the other side of the room, leaning on the bunk bed. “It’s been awhile since I’ve actually been in this room. Violet always used to hangout in my room, so I rarely ever came in here,” she explained, “We would always hangout in my room, Sophie and Tenn drawing while Violet would just listen along to me singing.” Minerva looked up to see Clementine smiling, listening with rapt attention about Minerva sharing fond memories about a passed friend.

“Afterwards… I just stopped coming in here. I never had a reason to to begin with and with her gone I felt like there was no point.”

“Sounds like she was a great friend,” Clementine stated.

Minerva looked up and leaned into the bunk bed again, hesitant to respond to that comment. “She was. We, uh... we used to date,” Minerva said flatly. Not because she didn’t care about her relationship with Violet, but because she didn’t want to make too much of a big deal out of it and hoped that Clem wouldn’t pay too much attention to that. Thankfully she didn’t.

“What exactly happened to her?”

“Same shit that always happens. Went out with Marlon and Brody and never came back. Nothing new,” Minerva lamented walking over to take a seat on the bed. “If I’m being honest, having someone around is probably good for me. Sophie would probably say that I need to brush up on my "people skills." I didn’t mean to come off a bit… intense earlier.”

“I get it. First impressions aren’t exactly my strong suit either,” Clementine replied. The two were caught off guard by the sound of AJ loudly yawning, catching their attention. AJ immediately looked away as if to pretend he wasn’t tired. Minerva took that as her cue to leave and stood up from the bed.

“I should probably get going. Tenn’s probably worried about me. See you later.” With Minerva left the room with Clementine giving a smile and a courtesy nod as Minerva closed the door behind her. She then made her way back to her room and saw Sophie still up drawing something.”

“Soo… how’d it go,” Sophie sang out not even looking up from her drawing. Minerva rolled her eyes at her sister.

“You could’ve warned me the new kid was staying in Vi’s old room.” Sophie looked up pretending to be deep in thought before messing with her sister some more.

“Eh, this was more fun.” Minerva scoffed and grabbed Sophie’s beanie off her head. “Whatever. It’s time for bed,” Minerva pointed out. Sophie tried to grab her beanie but Minerva pulled it back to keep out of her reach. Sophie pouted, brushing it off. 

“I call top bunk!” she cried out.

“What? You always got the top bunk,” Minerva complained.

“Did not!”

“To be fair Minnie, you always did get to sleep on the top back home,” Tenn said no longer pretending to be asleep. His sisters looked his way, causing him to lie back down and pretend he was still sleeping, not wanting to take sides. With the distraction Sophie flicked her sister on the nose, grabbed her beanie and ran for the top bunk. Minerva glared up at her sister, not surprised she would use a cheap trick.

“Fine. You win. I’ll take the bottom bunk.” Minerva crawled on top of the bed and went to sleep saying goodnight to her brother and sister. Sophie reached for her beanie and threw it at her sister, who was mildly annoyed, but chose to ignore her.

“Goodnight.”

* * *

The twins, Tenn, Louis, Aasim, and Brody were hanging out by the gate, waiting for Clementine to show up. Marlon said he was sending out two groups for the day to do some hunting and fishing. Unfortunately, Marlon said the twins had to split up. Louis and Aasim were hunting, while Minerva and Brody were on fishing duty. Marlon was going to let Clem decide which group she wanted to join for the day.

“So I really can’t come?” Sophie whined.

“You heard Marlon. You’re on lookout duty today,” Minerva grumbled not exactly happy about fishing with Brody either.

“Lame.”

“C'mon, you two. Ya don’t need to spend every hour of the day together,” Brody spoke up.

“You don’t get it,” Sophie said wrapping an arm around Minerva, “we’re sisters, we look after each other. I gotta be there for my big sister. You didn’t have any siblings by any chance Brody?”

Brody turned away, crossing her arms. “Nah, I didn’t.” 

Everyone turned their attention to the sound of approaching footsteps to see Marlon and Clementine with AJ in tow heading their way. It was time for them to head out for a supply run.

“Alright folks, Clem's joining Minnie and Brody for fishing,” Marlon announced using his leader voice before turning to Louis and Aasim. “Looks like you two are on your own today.”

“We’ll manage,” Aasim deadpanned. Marlon opened the gate for both parties to head out. The crowd dispersed save for Minnie and Sophie. The latter turned to the former, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Stay safe ok?” she said sincerely, with her eyes pleading for her sister to come home.

“I will.”

Sophie hesitated for a moment. “Especially considering-”

“I know,” Minerva said bitterly, knowing where she was going. “See you later.”

“See ya.”

* * *

Brody, Minerva, Clem, and AJ soon came up to the fishing shack the school used. The walk was quiet, save for the few comments from AJ and Brody, and up until Brody started talking about wanting to go on a road trip.

“A road trip to _where_ exactly?” Minerva snapped.

“There’s got to be something left to see. Clem could probably show us around. You know how to drive,” Brody replied cheerfully.

“Sure. I wouldn’t mind showing you around.”

“We’re going to the car?” AJ asked horrified.

“No, it’s broken kiddo,” Clementine assured him.

“Good. I’m sick of the car.”

The group soon approached the old fishing shack. Minerva didn’t hesitate to speak up as soon as they got there telling the others that she’ll stand outside while they grab the fishing spears. Brody was surprised but decided not to agitate her further and went inside the shack with Clem and AJ.

“Sorry about Minnie being a bit snappy. It’s my fault,” Brody lamented.

“How?” Clem asked.

“I was with Violet when she was killed. Minnie was really close with her… She probably blames me for it,” Brody sighs. “I guess I just miss being friends.” Brody turns around and finds one of the spears and grabs it. “Do you… mind talking to her?”

“Sure. I can try.”

“Thank you!” Brody perked up. “I’ll check the fish traps downstream,” she says picking up a bucket. As if on cue, Minnie could be heard outside the shack.

“Will you two hurry the hell up?” Brody gave one last look to Clem that said _‘good luck’_ and left. Now alone, Clem took a look around the shack. The first thing she took note of was a cat skull above a fireplace. She grabbed it to use as a decoration in the dorm, then went to check on AJ who seemed to be enthralled by a marking on the wall.

“Hey goofball. What’re you looking at?”

“V+M?” he answered staring at the carving of the initials with a heart carved around.

“Violet and Minerva…?” Clementine guessed. The ‘M’ could’ve been for ‘Marlon’ or ‘Mitch’ for all she knew. Or someone else completely. And someone else at the school could've had a name that started with ‘V.’ But Minnie did mention she and Violet used to date, and not many people had a ‘V’ name.

“What’s that mean?” AJ asked inquisitively. Clem hesitated in answering, debating on whether or not if it was her business telling him. He’d probably find out sooner or later.

“They were a couple. Violet and Minnie... dated.”

“Oh. Love,” AJ pointed out.

After enough dawdling, Clem grabbed the extra spear and headed out to meet up with Minerva who was already fishing. And failing.

“Mind if I join?” Clem asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Minnie deadpanned.

“Can I try?” AJ asked. Minerva didn’t say anything but just handed him a spear, which he seemed to light up at.

“Just be careful,” Minnie pointed out. AJ scampered off to go fishing for himself. Clem aimed for the fish that swam across and speared it. Minnie glanced over and saw that she got one. “Sorry if I was being a little pushy last night. About the room… and the knife.”

“I understand. There are people I still miss, too. It never really gets easier.”

“It doesn't.”

Clem speared another fish and placed it in the bucket.

“The haul’s not looking great y’all!” Brody called from down river.

“Got it!” Minnie called back. “Ugh, god she irritates me sometimes.”

“Clearly,” Clem quipped. Minerva angrily speared a fish impaling it completely, Clem following suit, but not as aggravated.

“I don’t know why. It seems like I’m just resenting her more and more.”

“You think it’s her fault with what happened with Violet,” Clem answered. Minerva looked down at the river and noticed there weren’t any more fish swimming and decided to head back. “Let’s go.” Clem, AJ, and Minnie met back up with Brody who claimed to have no luck with the fish traps and suggested they should see if the boys fared any better.

“I’ve always wanted to see the Rocky Mountains. On a road trip,” Minnie spoke up.

“That sounds nice,” Brody said smiling. She looked at Clem, giving a silent thanks. They soon made their way to the hunting grounds.

The forest was quiet and Louis and Aasim were nowhere around. They did notice a cut rope trap. 

“What’s that?” Minnie pointed out. Someone sabotaged their traps and the boys weren't around, which was really starting to put Brody on edge. “Louis! Aasim!”

“We’re right here,” Louis quipped from behind causing Brody to jump. Minnie noticed that Sophie was now with them, much to her surprise.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Marlon had me switch shifts with him. Said to meet up with Lou and Aasim.”

“Where have you been?” Brody cried out.

“Checking traps. Some were sprung but empty and the rest were broken,” Aasim pointed out. A wave of panic flashed over Brody's face as she began hyperventilating and muttering to herself. Minnie walked over to her to try and calm her down.

“I need to tell Marlon about this.”

“What about food?” Louis complained.

“Figure it out!” Brody snapped as she stormed off towards the school.

“I’ll take this back and see if we can ration something,” Aasim said turning to leave in the same direction as Brody.

“So now what?” Louis griped.

“Will Marlon kick us out if we don’t find food?” AJ asked fearfully.

“Let’s not find out,” Clementine assured taking out the map she got earlier. She looked it over and noticed the train station and decided they should head back there and see if anything survived the explosion. “Train station.”

“It’s outside the safe zone,” Minnie replied.

“And you set off an explosion there,” Sophie quipped.

“Yeah, I know some of it was destroyed but there has to be something left. There was so much. It’s worth a look," she pleaded.

Considering the alternative of going hungry, Louis and the twins decided to check it out.

“Well, lead the way.”

* * *

They soon arrived at the train station by nightfall. There seemed to be a lot more walkers than before. Clem pointed out that this is where they were. She was the first to volunteer to scout ahead and see if they could get inside. She climbed atop a pile of rubble and noticed a train car and the bell she rung earlier getting an idea. She informed the twins and Louis of what she thought.

“So what’s the plan?” Sophie asked.

“We use the bell and climb up that train car to get their attention.”

“Sophie and Louis,” Minerva vouched immediately.

“What?!” they both whisper shouted.

“C'mon, artist and musician. You guys are perfect theater material. Expressive, rowdy, a bit exacerbating,” Minnie tried to comfort.

“How rude…” Sophie marked.

“The sooner we do this, the sooner it’ll be over,” Clementine affirmed. Sophie and Louis gave each other a knowing look.

“Right on it chief.” 

Minerva pulled out her ax and noted she’d go with Clem to give her cover.

“If we die, you better play something nice at our funeral,” Sophie droned, grabbing the bell, careful not to ring it too soon, with Louis taking out ‘Chairles.’

“Good luck,” Louis encouraged. He and Sophie left to climb around the train car to distract the walkers while Minnie, Clem, and AJ ran for cover behind the crowd killing a few along the way. Clem had a mini heart attack as soon she heard Sophie and Louis making noise, not believing what she was hearing.

**“Turn around…”**

_“Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming 'round.”_

Louis was banging the chair leg against the car in a rhythmic pattern while Sophie rang the bell in a similar fashion, singing a duet of _Total Eclipse of the Heart_ , not much to Minnie’s surprise.

_“Turn around.”_

**“BRIGHT EYES!”**

Clementine signaled for the two to make their way over to the next car. Sophie and Louis stopped their duet and proceeded to head over to the next train car, Minerva displeased with their theatrics, hoping they’d hurry up already.

“We're dead.”

“Give them a second,” Clem tried reassuring.

“If we had one.”

**_“TURN AROUND!”_ **

_“EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART!”_

The trio took that as their cue to make their move.

“AJ and I will head in and grab some food. Stay here and keep watch for walkers,” Clem ordered. Clem went inside while Minnie stood watch and Sophie and Louis continued their concert ringing the bell methodically. Soon Clem was out of sight and she was watching the door. She looked away for a minute to watch her sister and Louis who were still 'performing.' Somehow she must’ve missed something within that time because a few minutes later she heard screaming and ran inside to see what happened but only saw Clem and AJ.

“What the hell?!”

“Take a bag and fill it,” Clem barked. Minerva did as she was told taking the hint that it was time to leave. They both filled a bag, then ran outside, leaving Louis and Sophie shocked, as they stopped singing immediately.

“Run!”

They both followed behind, all five of them killing walkers to escape. 

“What happened?” Louis panicked.

“We’ll talk later,” Clem briefed, as the group ran back to the school as fast as they could.

* * *

Everyone arrived back safe and entered the gates of the school getting everyone’s attention since they got back hours ago.

“Took y’all awhile,” Ruby snarked.

“How poor are they that have not patience!” Louis recited holding up the duffel bag. Soon everyone was surrounding the bench of food, never having gotten that much before. They all shared their thanks to Clem for bringing back so much, along with Louis and the twins’ help. Marlon and Brody walked over to see for themselves, Brody immediately voicing her concerns. “Where’d you get all this?”

“Old train station,” Louis quipped.

“We’d have more but we ran into the guy messed with our traps.”

“What guy?”

“He had weird different colored eyes,” Clem clarified. Brody looked back toward the gate with concern and asked if they were followed.

“Nope. Shoved him into a pack of walkers.”

“It was awesome!” AJ cheered.

“You attacked him? What the hell were you thinking?!” Brody panicked for what must’ve been the hundredth time today.

“I’d recommend you take a step back,” Clem said authoritatively.

“I'd recommend you getting your head out of your ass before we'll all dead!” Clem and Brody’s argument had gotten Marlon’s attention. Soon enough, the argument had gotten physical after she pushed Marlon on the ground and Brody stormed off. Marlon took responsibility and dismissed Clem to join everyone else for dinner and went off to deal with Brody.

“Don't worry about Brody. She freaks out over everything, especially anything that happens past the safe zone. She’ll be fine,” Minerva said solemnly. The safe zone. It’s been a year since Violet died. Bringing up the safe zone was difficult without thinking of her. 

“I’m heading to bed.” Sophie followed after her, knowing how she was really feeling. She didn’t call for Tenn to bed, knowing he’ll come when he’s ready and that he’d want to draw more. Sophie followed Minerva to their room, where Minnie was already lying in bed. On the top bunk.

“You doing all right?” Sophie asked.

“I’m fine. Just tired.” Sophie knew there was more to it than that but decided not to press. After years of knowing her sister, she knew she’d talk when she was ready.

* * *

Sophie woke up to the sound of noises in the pipes and turned to see it had woken Tenn up too. “Min, you hear that?”

“It’s probably nothing Soph. Go back to bed.”

“If it doesn’t stop in five minutes, I’m checking it out.”

“Suit yourself.” 1...2...3… after five minutes passed, there was a loud ‘bang’ in the pipes that got Sophie’s attention.

“That’s it. I’m out.”

“Wait!” Minnie said jumping out of bed, “I’m coming with you.” After helping Tennessee out of bed, the siblings headed out to the courtyard, where they saw everyone crowded around AJ pointing a gun at Marlon. They all tried calming him down as he kept asking about where Clementine was, Marlon said that she was in the basement and something about killing Brody. Everyone panicked asking questions about what happened.

“That’s bullshit, Marlon,” Clem yelled out of nowhere gaining everyone's attention, "You killed Brody. You hit her so hard, her head split open."

"That's a lie! I saw you kill her! Look at her hands! She's covered in Brody's blood!" Marlon pointed out the blood on her hands. With everyone distracted, he knocked AJ down and took the gun from him and pointed it at Clem, who didn’t even seem to flinch.

“You shoot me, and what do you offer up to your raider friends when they come knocking?”

"What the hell is she talking about?"

"Brody told me the truth, and that's when Marlon killed her."

"Come the fuck on! They only met these "raiders" because Clem insisted they go out there. Quite the coincidence. Shame I don't believe in those. Think about how scared we were when the adults left. I pulled us out of that fear and gave us all courage again. Who are y'all gonna believe, huh? Johnny-come-lately and her little fucking lunatic? Or me? Your friend?" Marlon argued. Everyone slowly backed away, panicking, believing Marlon had a point, trying to reason to themselves that this was okay. Clementine tried to appeal to one of the kids to get them on her side. 

“Minerva, believe me.”

“I...I don't have a reason to.”

“So it’s ok for me to die?” Clementine snapped.

Marlon tried manipulating Minerva to believe him. “What would Violet want you to do?”

“If you were there that day those raiders came... He would have abandoned you, too.” 

She thought about what they both said and came to a decision and stepped in between them. “Put the gun down. This isn’t how we do things.”

Soon everyone was turning against Marlon telling him to calm down. He flipped out and went off about trying to protect everyone, saying he would've done it again, making everyone realize how expendable they all were to him. Eventually Tenn mouthed off to him expressing his disappointment taking it especially hard, chewing him out about it. Marlon confessed to wanting to stage a rescue but being too afraid and that he killed Brody because she knew.

"You killed Brody because she knew?"

Marlon nodded glumly saying how he didn't mean for any of this to happen. Suddenly Clementine charged at him going for the gun, both wrestling for a bit, when Clementine repeatedly kneeing him the gut, then punching him across the face. She tossed the gun to the side with Marlon down surrendering. Marlon slowly got up to his feet accepting defeat.

“You win. I can’t -” 

Before Marlon could finish, a loud bang went off and a bullet through his head, everyone turned in shock, Clem seemingly surprised as well, as they turned to see AJ pointing the gun.

“What? I aimed for the head.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably should've said this already by now but feedback would be great.  
> fuck this took all day to write


	5. Exodus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."_

Violet laid in a fetal position on a hard, rusty, metal floor behind bars. A small amount of sunlight filtering through a tiny window. She had been stuck in the cell for who knows how long. She wasn’t let out at all and didn’t have anything to do, causing her sense of time to somewhat slip away. The only thing she had to go by was the tiny window. It was around evening when she was taken and she had fallen asleep since. Another day had passed since, so it had been maybe two?, days since her supposed ‘friend’ had sold her out to save his own skin.

Loud, heavy footsteps made their way over to Violet’s cell, where she heard the sound of metal moving against metal hinting at the door being opened.

“Get up,” she heard a familiar gruff voice say. Probably one of the guys who was present at the ‘trade.’ Violet just cringed in on herself more, not wanting to be bothered with whatever these assholes wanted with her and to just go home. Could she even call the school home anymore?

“I said get up!” he said much louder while jabbing the butt of the rifle he was carrying into her side causing Violet to wince in pain, suddenly sitting up and clutching her ribs. She looked up to see the man standing over, and she could tell they were not going to get along. Mainly from the smug grin he wore on his face. Like he was enjoying causing her pain. Not wanting to get another assault, Violet finally stood up and stared him in the eyes.

Even before the world went to shit, Violet wasn’t really a fan of authority and people telling her what to do. She would constantly get into fights with most of the staff and sometimes students if her rap sheet was anything to go by. Probably why she never got to go home and ended up stuck at Ericson’s. For whatever reason, she thought staring this guy down would give him the impression that she didn’t scare easily. Violet was soon proven wrong as she felt another hard jab in her gut as he hit her in the stomach with the rifle, clutching her stomach in pain.

“Abel!”

They both turned to see Lilly heading their way. “I thought I told you to wake her up,” she said sternly.

“I was. But she refused to cooperate so I was giving her...incentive,” he replied with a smug grin. Violet knew she was going to get tired of this guy before the end of the day.

“That’s enough,” Lilly looked down towards Violet who was still wincing in pain, “Come on kid. Follow me.”

Violet quickly followed behind, but only to finally get away from that guy. She soon followed Lilly on a shore of some sort, finding out she was on a boat. How far away from home was she then?

She noticed up ahead that there was some sort of building it looked like. The closer they got, she realized it wasn’t a building, but a giant fence and a gate for the entrance that automatically opened as they approached it. Behind the gate was some sort of community with a few buildings, five that Violet could see, what she guessed was a stable, and what appeared to be a church, if eight years of bible study were anything to go by. One thing she definitely didn’t miss about the old world.

After what felt like forever, they finally came to a stop at was apparently the farside of the community in a relatively empty field, far away from people and buildings. The only thing around was some kind of nightstands or tables and targets. Violet didn’t have to wonder what the hell they were even doing for long as Lilly soon addressed her concerns.

“Today’s your first day of training. Our community is at war with another and we need every capable soldier we can get. I assume you’ve never used a gun before, have you?”

Violet just crossed her arms and glared at Lilly. She hoped to get the point across that she wasn’t about to be so chatty and easily comply with the people that stole her and took her from her home. Lilly simply frowned at her stubbornness but didn’t press further, already knowing the answer anyway.

“No matter. I’ll get you to talk sooner or later. But that’s not important now,” she said, gesturing to the makeshift shooting range, as another man and woman walked up behind them both carrying rifles. “What’s important is that you learn how to shoot a gun. It’s something you need to know nowadays and for you to be in our war.”

“What if I don’t want to be in your war!” Violet spat.

“You don’t have that option,” Lilly replied firmly, “Gina.”

The female soldier that appeared walked behind the table that was set up and aimed her rifle at the row of targets on the other end of the field and fired off on all of them. Lilly turned to Violet and the soldier standing behind her and nodded in approval. He handed off the rifle that he was carrying to Violet almost dropped it on account of how heavy it was for her.

It also felt heavy in… a figurative sense.

“Now grip the fore-end of the gun with your left hand here and pull the trigger with your right,” Lilly coached moving Violet’s hands and arms in the right position to hold the gun. “The fore-end is-” she went on, but Violet was tuning her out, staring at the gun she was holding, feeling her chest tightening, suddenly feeling like she couldn’t breathe.

She was brought back to when she was eleven, watching cartoons with her grandma. Violet panicked when she brought out the .22 rifle, too scared to move and not knowing what to do or what was happening. It only made her more nervous as her grandma kept moving around to get the other chair and her back scratcher. Before Violet could even process what was going on, the gun fired off. 

Her mother came home hours later, her grandmother in the rocking chair after she shot herself while Violet was still watching cartoons. After that her mother sent her off to Ericson’s, labeling her a ‘troubled youth.’ It probably didn’t help what her only response to why Violet didn’t call for help; _‘It’s not like grandma was going anywhere.’_

Violet’s hands began shaking violently, feeling cold and lightheaded, and her vision starting to swim.

“-re you even listening?” Lilly demanded, seemingly unaware of Violet’s panic attack. She started shaking some more and surprising everyone, she screamed out in agony and threw the rifle across the floor, causing everyone to step back afraid it would go off and hit someone. When it didn’t go off, Lilly stepped towards Violet who was still shaking and cowering on the floor. Lilly wanted to be mad at her for nearly getting someone hurt, but the sight of Violet made her take pity.

“Hey. Hey, what’s wrong? You want to explain what that was all about?” she placed a hand on Violet’s shoulder, causing her to look up. She temporarily grounded herself to stand back up, crossing her arms.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she replied stubbornly, not wanting to reveal her trauma to the strangers that kidnapped her. Lilly looked at her fellow soldiers who just shrugged. She looked back to Violet shaking her head.

“Fine then. You won’t have to use a gun, but you do need a weapon. We can start training tomorrow. It’s been a long day. Gad here will escort you to where you’ll be staying.” Violet didn’t say anything. Gad picked up the thrown rifle and escorted Violet to her room.

“Come on kid.”

* * *

The next few days or so were miserable for Violet. True to Lilly’s word, she didn’t have to use a gun anymore. Instead she was given a crossbow. She still had to go through training on how to use it. It wasn’t too hard at first, probably because she used to love archery back at the school. The only thing she actually liked there. Day in, day out, Violet would be training almost all day long. If not training, it was chores like cleaning all the rooms on her floor, the bathrooms, tending to the crops or the pigs, doing laundry, it never ended. Almost every night she would find herself crying herself to sleep, or tossing and turning and hardly sleeping at all.

On the nights she’d find herself lying awake, she would think back to the school and everyone she missed. Brody who she considered her best friend, Sophie, someone she thought of as her own sister and Sophie’s actual sister, Minerva. Her girlfriend. She missed her a lot and it hurt to think about. Mainly of how things were before she was taken. She felt like their relationship was starting to go downhill for awhile now and was starting to feel one-sided. 

She also thought of Louis. As much as she hated to admit, but he was the only guy that could make her laugh, and he was always by her side, through thick and thin. He genuinely cared about people and Violet loved that about him. She’d have her meat cleaver at the ready, ready to protect him, and she knew he’d do the same. Violet’s thoughts would eventually drift to… Tennessee. That sweet little boy who took after his older sister in his love of art and drawing pictures. As the days passed, she wondered if she’d ever see him again. Spending so much time with his sisters Sophie and Minerva, Violet soon saw Tenn as her own brother as well.

Violet knew it was going to be another shitty day when she woke up to the sound of a bell violently ringing her ear. 

“Up and at ‘em blondie. We’ve got a busy day today,” Abel announced. Yep. Another great day. Violet sluggishly crawled out of bed and made her way outside to her post for the day. She was supposed to go scouting with another Delta soldier. Violet didn’t know what was meant by ‘scouting,’ when it could’ve easily been going on patrol, she knew she was in a community fighting a war, or looking for more kids to steal. Either way Violet didn’t ask. When she arrived outside of the front gate, Lilly and another Delta member were out waiting for her. 

“There you are. It’s about time you showed up. Hope you slept well,” Lilly snarked condescendingly, “I’m sure you’re familiar with what you’re doing today. Try to stay out of trouble, you’ve been picking a lot of fights since you got here. One more altercation and there will be consequences,” Lilly warned. Violet nodded in fear while averting her eyes to the ground. Satisfied, Lilly walked to her own post, leaving Violet to her scouting mission.

The trek into the forest was eerily quiet and felt too similar when she was first taken away. Except this time she was with a complete stranger. She would’ve taken off by now, if it weren’t for this guy’s constant staring. So much for trying to escape. After a few minutes of long and uncomfortable silence, the raider she was with finally spoke.

“I know you might think badly of us, but this is how we survive. So it’s better if you just do as we say and there won’t be any problems.”

If she could, Violet would’ve rolled her eyes all the way to the back of her skull, instead opting to use her usual sarcasm and snark. “Yeah, sorry I don’t exactly take kindly to the assholes that stole me and took me away from my home,” she snapped.

“Just do as we say and you’ll be fine. Or is that going to be an issue? Like it or not this is how we do things,” he barked. Seeing this conversation wasn’t going anywhere, Violet decided not to bother anymore. The rest of the mission went relatively uneventful. Violet didn’t know what to expect but she expected something a little more. These people were at war and they haven’t run into anyone or anything exciting. Even a walker at this point would’ve been nice. At least there would’ve been something to do. Violet was pulled out of her thoughts when the raider spoke up again.

“We should head back. Report that things are all clear in this area. We’re actually lucky we didn’t run into anything.”

“This _area_?” Violet asked.

The man looked at her with annoyance. “Did you not look at the map?” irritation present in his voice.

“I wasn’t given a map,” Violet defended. He shook his head in disbelief and pulled out a map, showing it to her.

“There are several marked off areas. Each of us were given a section to scout out for enemy patrols. We report back to base any sign of activity so we can prepare for possible attack,” he briefed, angrily shoving the map back in his pocket. “Now come on. Let’s get back to base before it gets dark.” He took off before Violet respond. Not wanting to find out if he’d actually leave her behind, she followed behind to catch up and head back to base.

* * *

That night, Violet lay awake staring up at the ceiling in her room, not particularly tired despite the lack of sleep she’d been getting lately, feeling like she needed to do something. Since she wasn’t getting sleep anytime soon, she decided to take a walk around base, hoping that would clear her head. For awhile it did, giving her mind something to focus on. Just when she nearly tired herself enough to go back to bed, she ran into Lilly and another man she was talking to. He wore aviator shades and a five o’clock shadow and a white neck-tie. Something about him set off alarm-bells for Violet.

“Well if it isn’t our newest recruit. Lilly has told me quite a bit about you,” his voice had a certain charm to it, a mix of a fatherly tone and someone you’ll grab a drink with. Violet didn’t like it. His charming demeanor was a lie as he was part of a group that steals people. “I’ve been hearing around that you like to stir up trouble. People have been talking about you.” Violet looked away from him, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

“This is Ryker. He’s in charge around here,” Lilly spoke up. That got Violet’s attention.

“So you’re the one I have to thank for fucking taking me away from my home. Glad I finally get to meet you,” Violet snarked. Ryker cast a dark look towards the teen.

“You do not want to test me. I already hear you're picking fights, and you’re wandering out past curfew. I wouldn’t push your luck if I were you.”

Something in Violet suddenly snapped, mouthing off to him. “Or else what? You’ve already kidnapped me and forced me to be a part of your war. Fuck you,” she chastised, and for good measure, spat in his face. Ryker didn’t flinch and simply wiped away the spit and looked towards Lilly with a harsh stare.

“Take her to the infirmary,” he ordered, “we’ll show her we’re not to be messed with.” Lilly nodded at his command and grabbed Violet by the shoulder and dragged her to their infirmary. She was taken to a room with a large chair in the middle and was thrown into it. Already there was Ryker and that 'Gad' guy from earlier. Once in the chair, Violet was strapped in by her wrists and ankles, sending her into panic mode. She tried to break free with the sudden adrenaline rush, but to no avail. Suddenly Ryker walked in front of her, holding a syringe and injecting her with it. Violet soon felt her whole body go numb, screaming in protest still struggling to escape. Gad approached her with a pair of tweezers in his hand.

“Gad.” With the go ahead, he stepped closer towards Violet and held her right eye in place, placing the tweezers on her eye. Violet felt her heart rate accelerate and tears fill her eyes. She soon felt the tweezers pulling out her eye as she screamed in agony, her eye socket feeling like it was on fire. Blood pouring out, obscuring her vision, while she screamed and cried in pain. Violet could partially see Ryker return with what looked like some sort of cloth. He placed it on her bleeding socket and Violet immediately felt a new kind of burning pain, realizing it was probably peroxide. Ryker removed the cloth on her eye while Lilly wrapped a bandage around her head where it would cover her eye.

“Now I hope you learned your lesson. This is your home now, and I’m sure you’ve already been told by now that you do as we say or there’ll be consequences,” Ryker said coldly as Lilly and Gad undid Violet’s restraints. She immediately placed a hand over eye, shaking from pain. Ryker ordered Lilly to escort her back to her room. Back in her room, Violet laid in bed, her whole body wracked with sobs. Eventually, she soon cried herself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> five chapters in and I just noticed I've never used a chapter summary before
> 
> also fuuck I meant to have this posted 4 days ago and for once it wasn't due to procrastination I've actually been on a writing kick lately
> 
> whooo is this what mania feels like.


	6. The Dust Settles, a Storm Approaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ericson kids deal with the fallout of Marlon and Brody's death,  
> leading to the fate of Clementine and AJ.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone that liked and commented, I'm glad to see people are enjoying this. three people have mentioned this already but this _will_ be Violentine, I will get to it eventually. But first... plot and build-up. the 'slow-burn' was referring to the time it takes for them to interact.
> 
> also I meant to get this out a few days ago but shit happened and fuuuccck I hate family events.

**Present day**

All of the Ericson kids stared in horror as Marlon lay dead on the floor. Everyone panicking, trying to process that he was actually dead.

“You shot him. He’s dead. You’re a murderer,” Louis cried, “Marlon, he--he was down. You had him beat! What the fuck did you teach this kid?!”

Everyone began to surround AJ, Mitch clutching his fist as if he were about to strike. Sophie pulled out her machete, brandishing it towards everyone and got in front of AJ, surprising everyone including Minerva. “Everybody back up!”

“Minnie talked him down, and then they fucking murdered him!”

“Take AJ inside,” Sophie commanded Clem, much to everyone’s disapproval.

“Oh, just let them go back to the dorms?! What happens the next time one of us does something this kid doesn't like? Should we expect a bullet, too?” Louis protested.

“There was a lot more to it than that Louis!” Sophie retaliated.

“He didn't have to shoot Marlon in the fucking skull! It was over!”

“Alright, Louis, chill out.”

“Chill out? Are you serious?!” he shrieked.

Clementine placed a hand on AJ’s shoulder and lead him away from the crowd heading inside before the situation got worse. “Come on. Let’s go.”

The rest of the kids crowded around Marlon’s corpse, Ruby crying out for help with the body. Louis and Aasim carried him towards the graveyard, while Omar and Willy went inside to get something to dig the grave with. They came back with a stack of cups and bowls, since they didn’t exactly have shovels on hand to use. Minerva pulled Sophie aside remembering that Brody was dead too.

“Hey Soph, can you give me a hand… getting Brody.” Sophie nodded and followed her towards the basement. It was pitch black making it damn near impossible to see save for the small amount of light cast from the moon. Not that it reached very far in. Minnie and Sophie made their way down the steps into the basement and didn’t have to go far in when Sophie’s foot collided with something. She motioned for her sister to help her drag the body outside. Not even halfway up the steps, the moment Brody was fully submerged in the light, Minnie felt her heart drop and her blood run cold, dropping Brody and causing Sophie to fall on top of her.

“Oh my god... Brody…” Minnie cried. Minerva watched in shock as Sophie carried her back up the stairs in clear annoyance.

“Hey. Move corpse now, grieve later.” Minerva snapped out of her stupor and helped carry her back to the graveyard where they were all taking turns digging the graves for Marlon and Brody. They were all just as appalled when they caught sight of Brody’s face.

“Shit! Is that-?”

Ruby turned away to puke near the wall. Minnie and Sophie set her down next to Marlon and offered to help dig. They each took turns digging when someone ran out of gas. After what was probably hours, Marlon and Brody were both buried next to each other, both with makeshift crosses with their names on it embedded on the ground.

“There. I think- I think we’re finished,” Sophie said out of breath, the biting cold rain not helping her exhaustion. “Look I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think we should hold a service for them in the morning.”

“Are you serious?!” “What the fuck?!”

“I get it! You want to mourn them, so do I. But I’m exhausted, it’s cold, and it's raining. Have fun getting pneumonia if you want but I’m heading inside.” Everyone solemnly looked at the ground realizing she did have a point. Minnie stepped in deciding to back her sister up.

“Hey, we already buried them. At least we didn’t just leave them out. Besides the sun will be rising in a few hours. And she’s right, I’m pretty sure you’re all tired too.” The group reluctantly agreed and headed back inside, deciding to mourn them in the morning.

“This is bullshit.”

* * *

Minerva woke up to the sight and sound of Sophie and Tennessee talking amongst themselves across the other bed.

“-ad to see you thi-” Sophie stopped mid-sentence seeing Minerva waking up.

“What, are you guys talking about?” she asked groggily. Sophie and Tenn shared a look of apprehension.

“What? Come on, Soph. Tell me.” Sophie stayed quiet for a minute before letting out a deep breath.

“She’s leaving.”

“What?”

“Clementine. I know the other kids are going to want her to leave. Marlon’s dead and AJ shot him.” Minerva looked at her sister with concern and sat next to her.

“I know it’s selfish, that two of our friends are dead, but I was just starting to like her and I was hoping she’d stay,” Sophie continued, “but knowing the others, they’re probably scared now and actually blame Clem and AJ for what happened. They’ll probably be gone before sundown.”

Minerva tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder in hope of comforting her. “To be fair, AJ did shoot Marlon and-”

“And Marlon murdered Brody! And did you hear what Clem said? He traded away Violet! Does that not mean anything to you?” Minerva was taken aback by her sister’s outburst and outraged at her claim.

“Do you think I don’t care about that?! You don’t get to say how I felt about Violet and-”

“Of course you do!” Sophie bit back, “that’s why you’ve been down on yourself for the past year.”

“What?”

“Min, I know you. I’ve seen what you’re relationship was like the last few weeks before she was taken.” Minerva crossed her arms and looked away from Sophie. “You feel guilty because you weren’t feeling the same way about her anymore and then you’re told she’s dead.” Minerva turned back to face her, reluctant to admit she was right. She blamed herself for Violet’s ‘death.’ She was supposed to be there and her feelings for her had slowly changed.

“We can talk about this later. Let’s just go to the funeral. Tenn,” Minnie looked up to see that he was sitting at the table across the room, wanting to stay out of Sophie and Minerva’s earlier argument.

“Yeah?”

“Can you go get Clementine and AJ for the funeral.” Tennessee nodded and walked out of the room. She turned to Sophie before heading out herself.

“Ok. We’ll try to convince the others to let them stay,” Minerva started, Sophie’s eyes lighting up.

“Really?”

“Really. Like you said Marlon started this. We can’t forget what he did to Brody and… Violet,” Minnie grimaced, not entirely agreeing with what she was saying but still heartbroken knowing he killed Brody.

“Thank you!” Sophie threw herself at Minerva giving her a hug. They pulled apart after a bit and headed out for the funeral. Everyone else was already there except for Clementine and AJ, and the twins didn’t know if that was better or worse. They all crowded around the graves to pay their respects to Marlon and Brody.

“Do we even remember how to do this?” Louis asked. The others shifted around uncomfortably in their spots, not having a funeral in so long after they stopped when so many kids died. No one having said anything, Louis sighed in exasperation. “They’re not gonna be here, are they?” referring to Clementine and AJ.

“And if they are? They were friends with Brody so lay off,” Sophie defended. Minerva shook her head in dismay. As if on cue, Clementine and AJ showed up to the graveyard.

“Oh, god, they’re here,” Aasim complained. Sophie shot him a death glare.

“I said lay off. Give them a break.” Sophie placed a hand on Tenn’s shoulder who was holding a picture that he drew earlier. “Ready, Tenn?” Tennessee gave a nod and placed the drawing on Brody’s grave.

“You always talked of wanting to go to the beach, so I drew one for you.” Minerva walked in front of Marlon’s grave, preparing to say something but found herself coming up short. “I...I don’t know if I can. Brody and Violet are gone, and it’s his fault... but I don’t know how to feel about this,” Minerva walked away from Marlon’s grave.

“Bitch,” Mitch spat.

“Hey! Are we just going to forget he murdered Brody and what he did to Violet?!” Sophie defended.

“Don't try it Sophie. He wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t deserve to get gunned down by that kid,” Mitch countered.

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Mitch,” Clementine finally spoke up.

“Yeah, well I don’t appreciate your kid murdering my friend.”

“I know I’m a murderer. But I’m gonna a...a…” he struggled to pronounce the word. “Atone,” Clementine clarified.

“Yeah. Atone it.”

“Fuck, I can’t listen to this,” Louis stormed off.

“What I did was bad, and I’m gonna make it up to. I promise,” AJ pleaded.

“Why the hell does a toddler have to apologize? Marlon was a murderer and a liar! We should've asked more questions about Vi disappearing last year, then none of this would've happened!” Sophie exploded.

“She’s got a point,” Aasim agreed.

“Shut up! It wasn’t Marlon’s fault!”

“Whose fault was it?!”

“You all share blame for what happened to Violet. And Brody,” Clementine spoke up.

“Who's responsible for Marlon though?” Mitch fumed.

“Me,” AJ accepted sadly.

“See? How can we trust them?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying they gotta fuckin’ go. Majority decides they stay or go. Today,” Mitch declared.

“You can’t just kick us out!” Clem pleaded.

“We brought you here. That means we can get rid of you too.”

“Wait a minute-” Minerva interjected. “I fucking knew it. You guys are ridiculous! What Marlon did-”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Ruby pointed out.

“A vote’s the only way to settle this or we’ll be arguing forever,” Omar agreed.

“Knew this would happen,” Sophie muttered under her breath, “Tenn, can you get Louis and tell him he needs to vote too?” Before leaving Tenn tried to get Rosie’s attention, but she refused to leave her previous master’s grave. Seeing she wasn’t moving, Tenn left to get Louis. Minerva instructed Clem and AJ to head back into the dorms and that she would get them after the vote.

“Please don’t kick us out,” AJ begged.

“Come on, let’s go.”

* * *

Sophie didn’t know how she got here. Walking in the middle of the forest when it was almost dark out, escorting someone to their death. She was walking with Louis to help Clem and AJ get past the safe zone, “safely,” ironically. Minerva opted to stay behind, saying she felt weird about it even though she voted for them to stay. Now Sophie was listening to the poor kid complain to his caretaker about how much it’s now going to suck that they’re on the road again.

“Will we get another car?” AJ asked.

“Probably not. We got lucky before.”

“So we’re walking.” Sophie looked over to Louis to see if he had any reaction to their conversation but remained stoic as far as she could tell.

““My feet are gonna bleed again,” came AJ. Again?! This was hard for Sophie to listen to. They must’ve been through hell for the past few years Sophie thought, with nowhere to call home.

“It’s not so bad,” Louis piped up, “I mean, you’ve done this before. Probably like going home for you guys.”

“Don’t pretend you give a shit,” Clementine snapped. Sophie shook her head in disappointment. She loved Louis, but how could he say ‘it’s not so bad’ when they were walking them to their death. The group soon came up to the drop-off.

“This is it. Road's that way. Anything to say?” Sophie gestured towards Louis.

“I’ve said plenty.”

“Thanks for trying to keep us,” AJ acknowledged.

“No problem. Wish you could’ve stayed.”

“Let’s go already,” Louis huffed.

“Will ya give us a minute?”

“If you really wanted us to stay, don’t kick us out!” Clementine answered.

“No dice. Everyone thinks someone else’ll get hurt if you stay. I’m sorry,” Sophie parted, heading back to the school. Louis lingered behind, watching Sophie a bit before looking back at AJ.

“I must be stupid. I can’t leave you out here unarmed,” he crouched down, handing AJ his gun back.

“Thanks.”

Louis stands back up and looks at them one last time before running off to catch up with Sophie. When he caught up with her, he could feel the anger and judgement radiating off of her. The silence didn’t help either.

“Look, I know what you’re gonna say, so just say it,” Louis tried to pretend he didn’t feel guilty. Sophie didn’t respond and continued walking in silence.

“You think that-”

“You’re an asshole you know that?!” Sophie exploded, stopping to face him, “you have every right to be mad, really, but is _this_ ,” she gestured to the woods around them, “going to fix anything? Or bring Marlon back?”

Louis felt his blood boil at that, like she had any right bringing up Marlon or dictate how he got to feel. “Oh, that is so not fair! You don’t get to bring Marlon up like that and say _I’m_ an asshole. What were we supposed to do? Let’em-”

The sound of a gunshot went off and it came in the direction of where they just left. Clementine and AJ. AJ had his gun, but it sounded louder, and if he did fire it, it meant they were in trouble. Sophie and Louis shared a horrified look and ran back to see if they were ok. soon slowing down upon seeing the sight of two strangers, one of them, a woman standing on Clem’s neck with a gun pointed at her and the other holding AJ by the arm. The woman pinning Clem down kicks her in the face knocking her over. Just when Sophie and Louis were about to run in and help her they see the woman extend a hand to help her up, and to their surprise, she accepts it.

“Lee isn’t with you.” Clementine didn't respond to that. “so he’s dead, then.” Sophie slowly crept up on the strangers getting ready to fire when she sees Clementine spotted them.

“Shoot!” she yelled. Without thinking, Sophie fired the arrow, hitting Lilly in the shoulder. Her partner threw AJ to the ground and shot Louis in the arm. Louis retreated back to the school wounded with Sophie following behind knowing that he’d have to get treated. Sophie just hoped that Clementine and AJ would be alright on their own against those two.


	7. It Begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to get this out like two days ago because friday was the last day  
> before break for me but when I got home I was just dead tired so...
> 
> also writer's block

Louis and Sophie ran as fast as they could away from the gunfire. Sophie looked over her shoulder, starting to slow down. Louis came to a full stop, seeing she wasn’t running anymore, clutching his arm.

“I- I think… I think we lost them…” she panted out of breath gripping at her thighs.

“Great. Now can we get back to the school. My arm feels like it just got shot,” Louis quipped sarcastically, still bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound. Louis removed his hand from the wound allowing Sophie to take a closer look at it.

“It doesn’t look that bad. C’mon we gotta go back and help them,” Sophie dismissed already heading in the other direction. She was stopped as Louis grabbed her by the wrist.

_"Doesn’t look that bad?_ Sophie. I got _shot._ And _they’ll_ be fine. Listen,” Louis instructed. Sophie did as he said, and he was right. Gunshots were still going off in the distance.

“If they were dead by now, why would they still be shooting?” he questioned, “I know we’ve only known Clem a few days by now, but I can tell she can handle herself, but right now we’ve got bigger issues. My arm for one. And they had guns. Even if we go back, what do we do? It’s no use in all of us getting hurt. Or worse.”

Sophie hated to admit it, but he did have a point. It’s not exactly like they were armed to the teeth themselves. And them going up against people who knew how to use guns was suicide. Louis was in no condition to fight either. At least not now.

“Fine. You’re right. We should head back and get you patched up,” Sophie relented.

“Thank you.”

“Can… we at least check to make sure if they’re alive tomorrow morning? Please?” she pleaded, looking up at him the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could muster. He couldn’t say no. Not to her.

“Fine. When it’s bright enough we’ll see if they made it.”

Sophie exhaled a sigh of relief, knowing that at least she’ll have some kind of peace of mind knowing their fate. Even if she was responsible. That she could live with. It’s not knowing is what would’ve killed her. They headed back to the school, the gunshots getting fainter and fainter.

“Are you ok?” Sophie asked sincerely, looking at his shoulder.

“Honestly, I think it’ll hurt more getting an earful from Ruby,” he joked, “I can her already.”

_“What ‘n the hell did y’all do? Y’all were just suppose to walk her out and then come straight back!”_ mocked Sophie. They both burst out laughing at her impersonation before settling back into a comfortable silence, walking through the dense forest. Soon the giant steel gates of Ericons’s came into view. But Sophie felt a weird churning in her stomach. She couldn’t help but think about Clem and AJ and that they left them behind. Louis seemed to notice this and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, they’ll be fine ok? I promise. And tomorrow we can go see if they made it, alright?”

Sophie looked at the ground and chuckled in spite of herself. “Alright. Let’s head inside and get you patched up. I’m exhausted.”

* * *

The next morning, Clementine came trudging up towards the gate of the school with AJ in her arms bridal style. A figure walking in front of her covered in walker skin. Willy who happened to be on lookout took not noticing Clem behind him fired an arrow.

“Walker!” The arrow just missed his foot as Clem stood next to him to gain his attention.

“Sophie! Louis! They’re back!” he yelled as he descended the lookout tower to get the younger twin. As he left, so did the stranger in walker skin, parting ways as Clementine slowly made her way to the front gate, exhausted from carrying AJ and little sleep. Soon Louis came outside to see that they did indeed come back. On the one hand, at least they made it. On the other, they’re back.

Clementine suddenly collapsed on the floor still struggling to carry AJ inside. The sight of it worried Louis as he rushed out the gate to help.

“Shit, is he…?” too afraid to find out the truth, looking at the sight of AJ.

“He’s alive. He was shot. He’s got a fever,” Clem clarified in rapid succession, her voice filled with worry and panic.

“Come on, let’s get him inside,” Louis carrying him the rest of the way giving Clementine a break.

“It’s okay, buddy, I got you,” came Louis trying to comfort the small child in his injured state. They continued on inside towards the admin building to treat AJ. As they went inside, most of the other kids were crowded around by the staircase. Louis carried AJ over to Ruby. “Let me see,” she said looking him over to see the extent of his injuries. “I have what I need upstairs. Come on.”

The twins, Ruby, Louis, and Clem went upstairs just outside the headmaster’s office, Clem explaining how they already got the shrapnel out of him.

“We?” Ruby inquired.

“It’s a long story.” Louis set AJ down on a couch for him to rest while Ruby checked his temperature, noticing he was running a fever.

“When you get a moment, do you mind meeting me in the office? We need to talk,” Sophie asked. Clem nodded at her request.

“Clem?” AJ croaked out, looking for his guardian. Ruby tried reassuring him that he was okay and that she was going to take care of him. Clem kneeled down next to him regardless just to give him some peace of mind.

“AJ, listen to Ruby, okay? She’ll look after you.” The look on AJ’s face told Clem that he was still terrified and nervous about being left alone. “Come on, what do we do when we’re scared?”

“We say…”

“You said I can’t swear.”

“We can make an exception,” Clem relented for his sake. “We say-”

“We say fuck off to fear,” AJ announced boldly. “I’m good now.”

Ruby walked up behind Clem, prompting her to stand up as well. “I’ll take it from here Clem. Why don’t you go and see what Sophie wants.” Clementine looked at AJ before heading into the office.

* * *

Inside, Minerva was sitting in a chair next to the door with her arms crossed, and Sophie standing in the middle of the room waiting for her.

“Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Clem asked.

“Oh, where to start? What happened in the woods, Louis got shot, we kicked you out and now you’re back, and the others…”

“Aren’t as thrilled about it,” Minerva cut in. “Nice job, getting another one of our friends hurt, by the way. Really proved their point.”

“Minnie!”

“That was an accident, okay?! I didn't know that was going to happen. Is Louis okay?” Clem asked Sophie.

“Let’s just say six inches to the left and we’d have three graves within less as many days.”

“Oh,” Clementine replied solemnly.

“Hey, for the record, he’s had worse days,” Sophie tried lightening the mood.

“Yeah,” Minerva scoffed rolling her eyes in annoyance.

“Also, who was that woman? The one that had you pinned.”

“Lilly,” Clem replied with venom in her voice.

“You want to tell us her deal?” Minerva asked sarcastically.

“If she hadn’t recognized me first, I wouldn’t have known it was her. We used to be in a group together. A long time ago. It was right at the start,” Clem explained. “She murdered someone in our group during an argument. Her name was Carley.”

“Yikes,” Sophie jeered.

“I haven’t seen Lilly since.”

“One other thing…” Sophie informed.

“What is it?”

“Willy mentioned someone else with you at the gate…”

“You brought a stranger straight to us!” Minnie shouted her voice sounding strained with worry.

“James. He’s not a threat. He lives alone in the woods.”

“Didn’t Willy say he was wearing animal skins or something?” Minerva added.

“Walker skin. It’s how he gets past herds. And guides them.”

Minnie and Sophie both visibly shuddered at the idea of wearing walker skin. It doesn’t help knowing that it’s from people that were once alive.

“Look you don’t need to worry about him.”

“Marlon and Brody are dead. We kicked you out and then you show up after we thought you died and now we have to deal with some ‘raiders.’ Now everyone’s scared and they don’t know how to feel about AJ. I think everyone’s worried about something,” distress clear in Minerva’s voice.

“What Minnie means is, things are kind of a mess right now. We voted you out, five to four against. They were scared of you both and now there’s just more stress to add on top of that.”

“If I stay and help out against the raiders, then I just might be able to change their minds,” justified Clem. “James said he’s been watching them for awhile. He said they’re at war with another community. They take people and use them to fight. And that they’re going to come back with more people and guns to attack and take us.”

Minerva pensively looked at the floor suddenly feeling dread. “Is...is that what happened to Violet?”

“Yeah, it’ll happen to us, not unless we stop them,” Clem declared.

“What?”

Clem walked over to the opened door of the balcony, thinking of a plan. “This school is like a fortress. I’m sure we can easily defend this place and make it hard for an attack.”

“What?!” Minerva asked again.

“Can you do that?” Sophie questioned.

“Yeah. I was part of a siege in a town called Richmond, once. I’ll show you,” Clem answered taking out the map of the school. “We make the walls hard to climb over they’ll have to come through the gates.”

“We might have barbed wire in the greenhouse,” Sophie suggested.

Clem pointed out the courtyard of the school. “Not a lot of cover in the courtyard. If we flip the tables, it could narrow down the pathways.”

“Give us protection if they get past the walls and let’s us know which way they’re coming. Nice,” Sophie added.

“We make our stand here,” Clem proclaimed, “there’s only one way in. And we could rig the path to the staircase with traps and pull back here,” she pointed towards the admin building.”

“Violet would’ve loved that. Luring in the enemy,” Sophie jested.

“Wait a minute can we-” Minerva finally spoke up, panicking at this whole plan the whole time.

“You guys don’t use the greenhouse, right?”

“Nope. A kid died, walkers took over, and phbhhh, Marlon said no more greenhouse.”

“You said there might be barbed wire. I’ll go get it.”

“HELLO?!” Minerva tried getting their attention this time. “Can we talk abo-”

“Okay what the hell is going on?” Mitch came barging into the room cutting Minerva off. He paused mid-sentence upon seeing Clementine. “Willy said she’s back, but I thought,'No way is Sophie that dense.’”

“Hey!” Sophie objected. Ruby came barging in seemingly pissed too, but for other reasons.

“Will y’all keep it down? The little boy is sleeping. His fever’s gone down Clem. He’ll be okay,” Ruby reported.

“And just give them our medicine while we’re at it too.”

“Mitch, the same people who shot Louis are arming up to attack the school and we need Clem’s help.”

“Like hell we do! She could be one of them.”

“The way their leader had her boot on Clem’s neck tells a different story,” Sophie countered.

“These raiders all carry guns, and they know how to use them. So whatever you think of me and AJ, deal with it, or you're gonna end up dead,” Clem defied.

“I’d rather take my chances.”

“Clem’s going to the greenhouse to get whatever we need and you’re going with her whether you like it or not. Whatever issue you have, take it and shove it,” Sophie yelled.

“I can go too,” Ruby cut in, “you know, to keep the peace.”

“I don’t recall putting you in charge,” Mitch fumed, shoving her arm.

“I didn’t see anyone else stepping up,” she argued. “Once I’ve explained the plan to them, they’ll meet you by the gate,” she reported to Clem. Clementine nodded and turned towards Ruby and Mitch.

“See you there,” she parted and left the office to meet them by the gate and head to the greenhouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... someone suggested I write the events of the time skip. And I'm gonna, but Idk  
> how many chapters I wanna dedicate to writing the WHOLE. two. WEEKS. I kind of feel like  
> I need to speed things up and I've barely gotten to the romance of this and the pairing this fic is dedicated to.
> 
> I also realized a while ago I'm gonna have to come up with a backstory for the twins and Tenn so... what's the most common/popular headcanon for them. I'll take suggestions. and for the length of the time skip and what anyone wants to see within the time period.


	8. Be Prepared Pt. 1

**Day 1**

The sun had barely risen over the school but all of the Ericson kids stood out front of the admin building lined up in the courtyard in front of Clementine.

“Listen up, everyone. We don’t know how long we’ve got until Lilly and her people show up. So we need to work fast, but we still have to set things up right!” Clementine ordered. “First things first, we need to have this wall defended. Sophie. Do you know if there’s enough barbed wire to cover the whole school?”

“The _whole_ school?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. The front, back, sides. No wall is being left uncovered. We want to make sure that there’s no way for them to get in.”

“I-I don’t know. There should be. We never really had much use for it, so we should have enough,” Sophie confirmed.

“Good. You and Aasim will take the back walls. Mitch, Willy. Right side of the school. Ruby and Louis, you take the left,” she commanded. “Minnie, you and I will take the front.”

“What can I do?” AJ asked eagerly. Clem gave him a look of pity and crouched down to his height.

“I want you to take it easy for a bit, kiddo. You and Tenn can be on lookout duty. Let us know if any of them show up,” she offered.

“Oh, great. What we do if they do show up,” Mitch asked irritated. Clementine stood up to her full height to face him.

“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that, Mitch,” she replied stubbornly. Mitch just shook his head in irritation. Sensing the tension amongst everyone, Aasim took it as an opportunity to speak up.

“Come on, Sophie. Let’s just go fortify the back wall,” he said carefully picking up a coil of barbed wire, not to cut himself with it. Sophie pulled her beanie down a bit and followed Aasim. The rest of the kids followed suit, and went off to their side of the school to put up the wire, Mitch being the last to leave to give Clementine one last stare down before angrily walking away. Clementine picked up the last coil of wire and turned towards Minerva.

“Ready, Minerva?” Clem asked. Minerva’s eyes widened in horror.

“I guess we’re really doing this,” she muttered under her breath. “Uh, yeah. Sure, I guess.” They walked over to the large front gate of the school while Tenn and AJ climbed the lookout tower. Clementine stared up at the gate, thinking of how to get to the top of the gate.

“So what’s the plan, huh?” Minerva mocked. Clementine gave her a glance before grabbing the bars of the gate and giving them a shake before she started climbing. Minerva took a step back, watching her go. “You know, you could’ve also climbed it from the lookout post. It would’ve been easier that way.”

“Yeah? Well, I like a challenge,” Clementine chuckled, trying to keep up with her sarcasm. She made it to the top and sat on the ridge of the fence. “Can you toss me the wire?” she called down below.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure you’ll cut your hands on it,” Minerva called back.

“I’ll be fine. Just toss it.” Minerva shrugged her shoulders and tossed the coil of wire up to Clem. She caught it but let out a cry of pain.

“Are you alright?” Minerva asked.

“Never been better.” Clementine looked at her hands and sure enough, she was bleeding. Nothing too major. At most it was like several deep paper cuts at once. She’s had worse. She started unraveling the coil and began looping it around the stone structure next to the gate and worked her way from their across the top of the gate and the rest of the wall. Minerva climbed up the lookout post and walked to where Clem started setting up the wire started extending it towards the other end of the wall. Minerva had extended it on the shorter end of the front wall and was soon finished. Seeing as she was done, she decided to go help Clementine with her side.

“Need any help?” she tried asking sincerely.

“I think I got it from here. But if you could watch and make sure I don’t fall off the wall while I set up the barbed wire, that’d be great.” Minerva obliged and climbed up the wall and walked behind Clem. After five minutes they were soon making decent progress. A silence also fell over them that Minerva decided to shake.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” a question that’s been weighing on her mind since yesterday.

“What is?”

“This whole, plan and defense thing. Against these ‘raiders?’”

“Uh, yeah? What’s the alternative? This is our- your home. Shouldn’t you want to defend it?” Clem tried to justify.

“I don’t know. But it seems like this whole plan is going to get someone else hurt. Or worse,” Minerva reasoned. “And just so you know, if _anything_ happens to my little brother or my sister… I’m holding _you_ responsible,” Minerva threatened.

“I promise it won’t come to that.” Clementine and Minerva finished setting up the wire in the front of the school around noon and climbed down the wall and headed back to the courtyard.

“Come on, let’s go check in and see how the others are doing.

* * *

**Day 4**

Clementine and Aasim stared each other down, circling each other, both in a defensive position. Clementine had her feet apart, arms up ready to block, while Aasim stood upright and stiff, ready to strike, arms hung low in front of his chest. Suddenly, he came charging at Clem throwing a punch, who sidestepped his attack, swipe-kicking him in the back of the heel causing him to fall on his face. Aasim groaned, slightly in pain and mostly in annoyance.

“You’re too predictable. If I were one of the raiders, you’d be dead. Try to make your attacks less obvious,” Clem explained, reaching out a hand to help him up. Aasim gratefully took it and pulled himself up.

“As important as it is for us to be ready, we’ve been sparring nonstop, for the past two days. What good is knowing how to spar, if we’re too burnt out to even fight,” he tried to reason, panting out of breath.

“These raiders aren’t going to give us a break. So you can either shape up and spar, or rest up _now_ and get killed during the attack. Your choice.”

“I’ll take you on,” came Mitch’s voice. He stepped into the makeshift ring they had made in the courtyard. The rest of the kids had sat on the front of the steps of the admin watching the sparring matches go on. Frankly, they were all terrified of Clem. Not of her specifically, anymore. Most of them had put what happened to Marlon behind them. But more scared because was good. Not one of them had been able to beat her yet. 5 sparring matches and she had won all of them. She was a great fighter. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve been on the road for most of your life struggling to survive.

“Alright, Mitch. Ready for round three?” she goaded, loud enough for the others to hear, earning a few chuckles from Sophie and Ruby, reminding him that he already got his ass kicked twice today. Mitch ignored her comment and got into position.

Same as before with Clem and Aasim’s match, except this time, Mitch came charging in much faster, throwing in a punch but much quicker and harder than Aasim, throwing in another, Clementine blocking both of them. He threw in another punch, but Clementine grabbed it, stopping him mid-punch, catching him off guard. She then grabbed the center of his shirt and flipped him over her shoulder, having him land flat on his back, earning a few ‘oohs’ and grimaces from the rest of the kids, expressing their sympathy for how painful that must’ve been and how impressive it was for Clem to flip someone almost twice her size like that.

“Anyone else?” Clementine asked, dusting her hands off, looking towards the spectators. They all tried to look anywhere else but at her not looking to get their asses kicked again. “Suit yourself. We’ll take a ten minute break. I need to go check on AJ.” With her announcement, she left to her dorm to see how AJ was doing with his gunshot wound. Maybe it was because he got knocked on his ass three times already today, but something in Mitch snapped.

“Hey, Clem! Wait up!” he called after her.

“What is it, Mitch?”

“I just want to say I’m… I want to apologize, for how I acted and how I treated you. And I’m sorry about what I said last night at dinner,” he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m still upset about Marlon, but I understand why the little dude did what he did. I’m pretty sure Willy would’ve done the same for me so, can we start over?” he asked extending out his arm for a hand shake.

“Of course,” Clem reciprocated. Mitch looked down at Clem’s hand noticing the branding.

“Cool. Nice ink. Little dude means that much to you?” he asked. Clem retracted her hand at his statement looking down at her hand with the ‘AJ’ tattoo.

“Uh, yeah,” she answered wryly. Mitch noticed the change in her voice.

“What’s wrong? Did I say something?”

“No, it’s just that… I got it from a friend,” Clem clarified sadly. “Before she… did me a favor. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Got it. Sensitive subject.” Clementine nodded at him and went to her dorm room while the other kids rested up before she came back.

* * *

**1 Week Later**  


“Come on, Louis. You can’t be afraid to hit me, so don’t hold back. These raiders, won’t,” Clementine instructed. Louis stood across from her with his arms limply held up in front of him. The past week had been filled with setting up defenses or sparring with far and few breaks in between. Everyone was exhausted and tension was starting to build and it was starting to show.

“I can’t! I’ve never actually hit someone before. At least not to hurt someone. This is new for me,” Louis called out. Clem gave him a hard glare.

“Just pretend, I’m one of the raiders, who’ll have no problem hurting you. Or killing you,” she bit back. It was at this point that Sophie stood up from her spot on the steps.

“Hey, Clem. Why don’t you take a break? I’ll spar him.” They both gave her a look of confusion, even Minerva.

“Are you sure? I mean, both of you still-”

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Clementine looked back at Louis and shrugged her shoulders, trading places with Sophie.

“What are you doing?” Louis asked skeptically. He was no stranger to her antics, and that mischievous twinkle in her eye didn’t make him feel any better.

“Trying to give you a little motivation to fight back. Just pretend that I’ve hurt you, and it made you mad enough to want to hurt me. I mean… I’ve done it before,” she conceded. He knew what she meant by that. She did hurt him, but not intentionally. It was some time after Violet’s than supposed ‘death,’ they were both dealing with grief, Sophie’s methods… unhealthier than most. She lashed out at almost everyone, and then she said something that really hurt Louis. It was then that they decided they both needed a bit of space.

“I know you didn’t mean to…”

“Just think back to that day. How angry you were and how much it hurt. Take that anger and let it out,” Sophie encouraged. Just bringing the memory up was starting to bubble up some anger, but a couple of things were still holding him back. He took one look behind him.

“I think if I hit you you’re sister will be a bigger problem for me than the raiders,” he tried to joke.

“Let me deal with her. Now come on. Try to hit me.” Taking a deep breath and swallowing his pride, Louis went in for an attack, immediately blocked by Sophie who followed up with a counter-attack. They went back and forth, Louis doing surprisingly well, but Sophie obviously appearing as the better fighter. Suddenly, Sophie threw in another punch and Louis stepped out of the way and repeated the same move Clementine performed on Mitch earlier. Louis panicking, Minerva standing out of her seat ready to go over and help her out. Sophie just laughed and reached her hand out for Louis to help pull her up.

“Nice one.” Louis and Minerva let out a sigh of relief and Louis helped her stand up. Once she was on her feet, she dusted herself off and was approached by Clementine and her sister.

“Alright, enough sparring for today. Louis, I want you and Mitch to do another perimeter check. Finish up with the back defenses.” Louis nodded at her and went to find Mitch. Clem turned her attention back towards the twins. “I gotta say, I’m impressed with how well you’ve been doing. But also… surprised.”

“Why surprised?” Minerva asked.

“Well it’s just that, Sophie you’ve been so ridiculously nice. One of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time but you’re not afraid to throw down. I mean you’re the only one that’s come close to beating me. And Minerva… There are a few areas where you could improve but you’re…”

“Kind of a bitch?” Sophie added for her.

“Hey!”

“Not the way I’d put it, but sure.”

“So what you’re saying is, Minnie’s a bitchy pacifist and I’m a kindhearted… what’s the opposite of a pacifist?” Sophie asked.

“Moron,” Minerva muttered under her breath.

“Nerd.”

“Dork.”

“Loser.”

“Guys!” Clementine cut in to their banter, “come on, let’s take a break and get cleaned up for dinner.” The twins along with Tennessee, headed off towards the dorms, while Clementine went to the lookout post to get AJ.

“Hey there, goofball. Ready to turn in?” AJ put down the binoculars he was using to look at Clem.

“Yeah, I’m good. Being on lookout is no fun. I want to help out more with the school. So I can a...a...atone.”

Clementine looked at him sympathetically. “How’s your gunshot wound?”

“Still hurts,” he said absentmindedly clutching his stomach, “how long is it supposed to feel like this?”

“Heh, it’ll still hurt for a while, but it heals after a little over a week. Trust me, I know,” she explained gripping her shoulder, recalling back to when she was eleven, and the last person she could consider a friend took off with the person who shot her, never to be seen again. Clementine and AJ descended down the lookout post and headed inside to clean up for dinner.

“Come on. Omar is adding a new spice to dinner,” Clem mentioned.

“Cool!” AJ cheered. “What’s a spice?”


	9. Be Prepared Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> three chapters within two weeks? shocking I know. this is what happens when you're on break and avoid homework

**Day 10**

Violet stood at the bow of the SS Fitzgerald leaning over the railings, staring at the water as she sailed the Ohio River, lost in thought. She couldn’t help but think how murky the water looked. If walkers could swim, you wouldn’t be able to see them coming. Or you could fall in and no one would be able to see you beneath the surface. She wondered…

“Violet!” Lilly’s voice distracted her from her thoughts, pulling her out of her stupor.

“Rockingham,” she responded flatly.

“No need for signal calling. I just wanted to talk to you.” Violet continued staring out past the water without giving a response. “We’ll be back at your old school soon. You're not _not_ allowed to join the raid.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Really? I figured you would’ve wanted to see your old friends again,” Lilly asked with surprise.

_"Friends,”_ Violet scoffed.

“A toxic ex-girlfriend, two of my best friends who'd rather look the other way, and everyone else is either indifferent about me or don’t care. Yeah, I’m real glad to see my friends again."

“Well if that’s how you feel, then why are you all the way out here with us then?” Lilly demanded.

“Because _Ryker_ asked me too. Or did you forget about that?” Violet spat. Her response made Lilly want to slap her for her insolence, but she refrained from doing so and instead joined her, leaning over the rails and watching as they passed the forest trees. Maybe it’s because she knew how it felt to be somewhat ostracized from her group. Everyone at the motor inn had it out for her except maybe Lee.

“So that’s it, huh? You’re cutting ties with all your friends? There’s not anyone there left that you might wan to see?” Lilly asked curiously. Violet thought about everyone who was left at the school last she was there. If they were still alive. Marlon was dead. Good riddance for all she cared. Brody, Louis, Sophie, Minnie...

"Just one. This kid... Tennessee. My ex's little brother. Sweet, innocent little boy. Always in his own world. After some time, I eventually saw him as my own little brother that sometimes I forgot he wasn’t," Violet remembered fondly, saddened by the fact that she might never see him again. Lilly intently listened to Violet talk about how the only kid left at her old school that she seemed to miss was someone probably barely starting puberty. Which was kind of sad to think about, she was cutting ties with all her friends that were around her age. She pushed herself off the railing and headed below deck.

“Come inside when you’re ready for dinner.”

* * *

**Day 12**

Sophie threw a punch at Clementine, and unlike the others, she followed through with another attack, which Clementine still evaded and sent in a punch of her own. Fortunately, Sophie was much more agile than the other kids and easily dodged it. The fight went on like that for a good few minutes while the rest of the kids watched. The defenses for the school were just about done so the kids decided to use what they could as “down time” as sparring practice.

Admittedly most of them had gotten better over the past week or so, but none of them could beat Clementine. Sophie was still the only one that came close to matching her. As the fight continued, the kids turned into spectators, as if they were watching their favorite sport, cheering and betting on who would win. AJ, Mitch, Aasim, and Ruby had ‘bet’ on Clem. Minerva, Louis, Omar, and Willy bet on Sophie. Tenn refrained from betting saying that, “both are pretty good fighters” and that he liked them both too much to pick.

Aasim had argued that it’s been almost two weeks and she hasn’t beaten her yet. It’s unlikely for her to suddenly to be able to ‘win.’ Louis decided to take the betting thing seriously and dared him that if Sophie won, they’d have to wear each other’s clothes for a week, much to Aasim’s horror. If Clementine won, Louis had to do everyone’s dishes for a week. The fight continued on, both of them seeming to be tiring out.

“Is that the best you got?” Clem taunted blocking another punch. Sophie simply smirked in response.

“You saying this isn’t my best?” she teased back, dodging a roundhouse kick.

“Come on. This isn’t our first match. You've done better befo-” using Clementine’s distraction as an opportunity, Sophie tried to attempt the swipe-kick she had used on Mitch several times and knocked her flat on her back, everyone grimacing in response. When she was down, Sophie placed a foot on her stomach, looking at her with a twinkle in her eye, knowing she won. Clementine shook her head in a lighthearted manner, accepting defeat. Sophie took her foot off and extended her hand to help pull her up, Clementine accepting. Aasim silently crying on the inside, mentally preparing to trade clothes with Louis.

“Good work, everyone. You’ve all come a long way in such a somewhat short amount of time. Why don’t we call it here and get cleaned up,” Clem praised.

“Well, we had a good teacher,” Mitch thanked. Everyone got off the steps and headed to the dorms to get cleaned up after a long day of sparring. Clementine hung back and did a quick check of the school, just to get a read of what they had so far. Tables were flipped throughout the courtyard, spiked barricades, barbed wire around the walls, the flag having been replaced with a banner saying ‘Fuck Raiders,’ another larger banner in front of the school saying ‘Leave or Die,’ and walker head pike scarecrows. Mitch’s idea. Not a bad setup so far, but she was going to do an actual sweep of the courtyard later to make sure everything was ready. Satisfied with the setup for now, Clem went inside back to her dorm. Once she got there, she noticed that AJ was missing. Probably out on patrol. He knew he was allowed to patrol as long he was back inside before dark, so he probably would be back soon. She was surprised, however, when the door opened to reveal Sophie.

“Hey, Clem,” she greeted casually.

“Sophie. Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to chat and hang out for a bit before Minnie notices I’m gone,” she teased. Clementine quirked an eyebrow in confusion at her remark.

“Does Minnie not allow you to talk to me?” she mused.

“Pfff, no. She’s just a worry-wart.” Sophie walked over to one of the beds on the opposite side of the room. “Come on, let’s talk.”

Clem sat on the opposite bed of her, bending one leg up on the mattress.

“Alright. What do you want to talk about?”

“I wanted to say thanks. For everything and all you’ve done for the school,” she pulled her beanie off, playing with the edge.

“I didn’t do much. I just said what needed to be done and you guys did the rest,” Clem admitted bashfully.

“Yeah, and none of us would’ve been able to do it without your help. Some of the other kids won’t admit it, but even though Marlon’s dead, you exposed his lies and you’re helping us prepare for the mess that he caused.” Clementine grimaced at the mention of Marlon. She still felt a bit guilty about his death and she sometimes worried about AJ. She wishes she had more time to teach him right from wrong. She was so focused on teaching him how to _survive_ , and not much more beyond that.

“So what if AJ hadn’t killed Marlon? You both end up staying at the school but we probably would’ve never learned about the raiders, and we might’ve ended up dead,” she continued.

“Are you glad that he’s dead?” Clementine asked. Never a fun question to ask about someone’s previous relationship to someone if it was complicated. Sophie paused for a second before she gave an answer.

“Not entirely. No. If I’m being honest, when I heard he killed Brody I was shocked. But… I guess I wasn’t surprised,” she admitted. That got Clementine’s attention.

“What do you mean?”

“Another time.” Clementine nodded and didn’t press further.

“Then you mentioned he gave Violet away and… I don’t know. I couldn’t believe she was alive. She was like my best friend and I guess I felt hurt. Marlon, gave her away. He told us she died.” Clementine could see the inner turmoil going through Sophie’s head, learning that her friend had ‘come back from the dead’ so to speak. She knew what that was like, thinking someone was dead but it turns out they were alive. She’s been through that _twice._

“What was, Violet like?” she tried steering the conversation away from making Sophie more depressed. That got her to perk up immediately.

“Oh, she was great. If you could handle her sarcasm, then I’d say she had a great sense of humor. Her dry wit and snarky attitude. She knew how to take a prank, surprisingly.” Clementine gave a sad smile. She enjoyed hearing Sophie talk about Violet, but she seemed more animated compared to Minerva talking about her, who was supposedly her former girlfriend. Maybe that’s just the way they were. She decided not to read too much into it.

“It was always so much fun when Minnie, Vi, Louis, and I would have prank wars. Usually against each other or we’d team up and prank the school. She was also such a dreamer. Deeply loyal, sensitive, quite the idealist, and…” Sophie looked up to see Clem smiling. “Sorry. Am I ranting?”

“No, you’re good. It’s nice to see she meant a lot to you.”

“Yeah…” Sophie admitted. She hesitated to ask but better now than later. “Do… do you think Violet is going to be with the raiders when they show up?” she said almost all in one breath, “do you think we could maybe, convince her to come back to us?” The desperate plea in her voice made it hard for Clem to give her an honest answer.

“Honestly? I don’t know if she’ll show up, but if she does, I don’t think there will be time to talk her back into joining us. There's going to be a lot of chaos dealing with fighting off these raiders.” The dejected look on Sophie’s face made Clem’s heart hurt. “But… if we get a chance to talk to her, then sure. Let’s bring her home,” Clem emphasized on the word home. Sophie broke out into a grin and pulled on her beanie. She sat up off the bed and walked towards the door.

“I should probably be getting back, it’s getting late. I enjoyed our talk. Thanks again.”

“Anytime,” Clem assured. Truthfully, she wanted to talk more, but they didn’t have the time. Maybe when they didn’t have the threat of raiders invading their home looming over their head. There was also more she wanted to ask, one question that’s been on her mind for awhile.

“Hey, Sophie?” she caught her just before she left the room. “What’s the deal between you and Louis? You don’t have to answer that.” Sophie went beet red in the face and felt a little flustered.

“Ah, heh, uhm… We used to date,” she admitted. Clementine was definitely surprised by her answer. As far as she was aware, it seemed like everyone was dating each other at this school. “Don’t worry about it. We’re over it. Goodnight.” As she opened the door, AJ was standing on the other side.

“Hi, Sophie!” he greeted.

“Heya, buddy. What’re you doing still up?”

“I was out on patrol. Clem doesn’t like me patrolling when it’s dark out so I came back in for bed,” he explained eagerly.

“Well, she’s right. It’s dangerous at night,” she teased. Being an older sister herself, she kind of got where Clem was coming from. “Well, goodnight you two.” Sophie left, leaving AJ and Clementine alone.

“So how was patrol?”

“It was alright. Mitch said he wanted to join me.”

“Did you have fun with him?” she asked teasingly, as she picked AJ up to put him to bed.

“It was nice. I don’t think he’s mad at me anymore. I think.” Clementine ruffled his afro before climbing in her own bed.

“Let’s get some rest kiddo.” AJ nodded and closed his eyes, as he proceeded to drift off to sleep. Clementine followed suit, hoping that tomorrow will be the day the raiders finally attack, just so they can get it over with. They’ve been mostly ready for awhile but now the waiting was starting to get to people. Sure it was going to be dangerous and there was going to be some risk. But tension was starting to rise they wanted to get it over with. She’ll probably find out soon enough.


	10. And Then There Were 7...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Delta finally arrive at Ericson’s and the kids are ready. However, no battle comes without loss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so whoever wants to know, I get a lot of ideas of what I want to write for this, and the last three chapters or so there was stuff I wanted to put in but left out for a few reasons, but regardless, I’m glad people are still reading and enjoying this.
> 
> also, some of the dialogue and choices are based on my own playthrough. some of the choices  
> I made playing the game were based on me being an impulsive idiot.

**2 Weeks Later**

The sun rose over Ericson’s as Clementine and AJ walked out of the dorms into the courtyard. Clem surveyed the courtyard around and noticed some of the kids doing their own thing. Minerva sitting on the front steps of the admin building, Mitch working on a bomb, and Tenn running off to be on a lookout duty. She was soon distracted by the sound of AJ yawning.

“You ready to work today, kiddo?”

“Bad dreams always make more tired,” he replied.

“Me too.”

“I slept better in your bed,” he smiled at Clementine before scampering off to join Tenn on lookout. Clementine’s attention was diverted back to Minerva who was sitting alone on the steps and walked over to her.

“Hey, Minnie? Have you seen Sophie?”

“No. I never know _where_ she is anymore. But you might want to talk to Louis,” Minerva answered bitterly.

“Why? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. But I think you should talk to him,” she gestured over to Louis who was currently practicing archery by their makeshift target practice. Clementine looked towards Louis’ direction who was firing arrows at a target and missing.

“I’ll go talk to him.” Clementine walked over to Louis, but not before looking at the ‘Fuck Raiders’ flag they had hung up as she passed it by.

“Still wouldn’t want to pledge to _that_ ,” she muttered under her breath. As she approached Louis, he fired an arrow and missing the target and hitting the tree. He fires again. Miss.

“Ugh, shit.”

“What’s going on?”

“Getting ready for the raiders to burn down our home and steal or kill us. Knowing that this made all the difference,” he gestured to the suspended target with Marlon’s old bow.

“We’re going to stop them before they get a chance,” Clementine affirmed.

“You sound like Marlon… the way he would try to cheer everyone up.” Louis pulled up an arrow out of the ground and nocked it back in the bow. “While my best friend was left with all the hard decisions, I sat around making jokes, playing games, for years,” he fired the arrow. Miss. “all the responsibility, all the tough calls, and what does he get? A bullet to the head. And I didn’t do a damn thing about it.” Clem looked away nervously, scratching the back of her head.

“Then you told us what he did, then AJ shot him. And I blamed both of you. I wish I could it take it back. I knew that the day you came back,” he confessed.

“I’ll admit I was a little pissed at first, but I don’t blame you for why you were mad. AJ shot him and I didn’t stop it.”

“He was like my brother. I’ll never be glad he’s dead, but I understand why AJ thought he did what he had to.” Louis handed Marlon’s bow to Clem. “Here. You take it.”

“Are you sure? It’s Marlon’s.”

“It was. He used it to defend the school, before... before someone else. Try it out.” Clementine took the bow and loaded up an arrow and aimed at the target and fired. 8 pointer. Fire again. 8.5. Again. 9 points. Again. Bullseye.

“Damn. Remind me to never piss you off while I'm standing at a moderate distance with a big red circle painted on my chest.” Clementine set the bow down next to the wall barricade. “You wanna come back and practice more, just let me know. Okay?”

“Sounds good,” she agreed.

“And, Clem? Thank you. For all of it.” Clementine nodded in approval and went back to surveying the courtyard and helped out Mitch test the bomb before heading to the graveyard, bumping into Minerva who gave a quick ‘sorry’ and kept walking. Clem decided not to pry and walked over to where Marlon and Brody’s graves were, seeing Rosie lying down.

“What’re you doing down there, Rosie?” Rosie stands up panting, wagging her tail. Clem crouches down and scratches the back of her ear, much to the dog’s delight as she barks happily.

“Good girl. What’d Marlon use to do?” She whistles and Rosie sits, prompting a laugh from Clementine. Rosie happily walks off as Clem diverts her attention back to the graves. She stares down Marlon’s grave before deciding to spit on it, still kind of pissed that he left her for dead and tried to kill her and AJ. After paying respects to Brody, she left the graveyard and went back to surveying the courtyard to go over any last touches to prepare for the raiders before heading back over to talk to Minerva, who was talking, or arguing, with Sophie.

“I just wanted to know, ok?” Minerva fretted.

“Chill out. I was just checking to make sure the back hall was secure.” The twins noticed Clem’s presence as she approached them.

“Is everything ok?”

“Minnie was just worried about where I was. We’re cool,” Sophie answered nonchalantly. As one argument settled, another appeared as Aasim and Willy came bursting out of the admin building arguing.

“Because you're boring and your idea is stupid!”

“Oh, I’m being stupid? Do you even hear how you-”

“Guys! Fucking Christ!” Sophie snapped. The commotion attracted the attention of the rest of the kids to see what was going on.

“You told us to work on the traps together, but Aasim’s not listening to what I say,” Willy complained.

“That doesn’t mean you have to scream at each other,” Louis quipped.

“Stay out of this. I have an idea for duffel bags filled with bricks. We drop them on the raiders, if they get to the admin building. Willy here wants to use a giant, idiotic swinging log to take out one raider at most. It's completely stupid,” Aasim explained.

“You’re stupid!”

“You’re being childish.”

“We should go with the brick trap,” Clem interjected to settle the argument.

“It sounds more practical,” Sophie agreed.

“Mine’s practical!” Willy argued.

“No, it isn't. It's exactly the kind of thing a child would think up. Especially a child who has no idea what he's up against.” Willy snapped and punched Aasim in the stomach.

“The fuck?!” Willy runs off before anyone could say anything, out of fear and frustration, as everyone crowds around Aasim.

“Dude, you okay?” Louis asks concerned.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Shit!” Aasim storms off.

“Well, at least we can do the raiders’ job for them before they do,” Minerva deadpans.

“What we need is a little tension breaker,” Louis pipes up, walking over to where Aasim sat. The twins and Clementine follow behind him in curiosity. They join him and sit down on a nearby couch.

“Hey, buddy, how’s it hanging?” Louis teased.

“Dude, fuck off.”

“Sulking isn’t going to help us. Or turn that frown upside down. Which is why I’ve come up with a solution,” Louis says as he holds up a deck of cards. AJ and Tenn notice their game and suggest that he and Tenn play. As they join, Louis shuffles up the deck.

“Ugh, how long has it been since we’ve played?” Sophie asks.

“Not since Marlon,” came Minerva. Louis notices the look on Aasim’s face as he notices Ruby pass by.

“If thou wants Lady Ruby to joineth, I mind not,” he mocked.

“Ruby and Aasim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-” Sophie sang.

“Shut up!”

“What’re we playing?” AJ asks.

“Truth or Dare!”

“Using cards?” asked Minerva.

“With this version. Everyone draws. Highest card gets to ask the loser.” Louis passed around the deck as everyone drew a card. Sophie drawing the high card, Clementine the lowest.

“Ha. Truth. Marry-Fuck-Kill.”

“Soph…” Tenn chastised.

“Crikey. Marry- _Flip_ -Kill. Ruby, Mitch, or… walker boy in the woods.”

“Oh, my god,” Clementine droned.

“You gotta answer. Them’s the rules,” piped Louis.

“Mm. Let’s see. I would marry… Ruby.”

Everyone in the circle diverted their attention towards Aasim with the smuggest grin on their face, while Aasim looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

“What?” he snapped.

“Jealous, Aasim?” Louis teased.

“No. shut up!”

“I would, um, flip…” Clem continued.

“Flip, flip, flip, flip…” Louis chanted.

“Flip, flip, flip!” AJ mimics.

“Mitch.”

“If you’re into the ‘quasi bad-boy,’ demolitionist type, I suppose,” Minerva jeered.

“You do you, Clem,” affirmed Sophie.

“So that means you’re killing…”

“The talking walker!” Sophie gleed.

“I'll try to shed a tear for the poor boy none of us met, who's probably just a figment of Clem's imagination,” Louis theatrically announced.

“No, he’s not. I met him,” AJ defended.

“Well, now he’s dead. Poor dude,” Louis countered, “this is a nice break from thinking about homicidal assholes coming to kill us.”

“Dude…”

“Onto round two,” he said with a wink. Everyone drew a card, with Clem as the winner and Aasim losing. She looked at him with a devilish glint in her eye.

“Definitely a dare.”

“Okay, do your worst.”

“You have to sing a song... for Ruby.”

“Seriously?!” he panicked.

“The most legitimate of dares,” Louis goaded. Everyone watched as Aasim stood up and walked over to where Ruby was standing as he proceeded to, presumably by his body language, attempt to sing. His attempt was cut short as they saw Ruby slap him, sending everyone to a fit of laughter. Aasim stormed back to the group, now pouting.

“I think we all learned about our good friend Aasim here, is that he has no romantic charm, whatsoever.”

“Shut up.”

“Time for round three, ding!” Once again, everyone drew a card, with Louis drawing the high card, and Clem drawing the lowest.

“We’ve all been teasing Aasim about sweet Ruby. Seems only fair we tease someone else. Clem, anyone here you like-like?”

“I mean, I like all of you enough, but I wouldn’t say I have a crush on anyone,” Clem answered honestly.

“Aw, poor Louis has nothing to tease Clem about,” Minerva jokes, lightening up for once.

“Plenty to still tease about. Like the hat,” he commented.

“Don’t. She gets really mad,” AJ defended. The game continued to the next round as everyone drew a card, Aasim drawing the high card for once, the loser being Tenn.

“What’s something you’ve never told anyone, because you were afraid they’d make fun of you?”

“Go ahead, Tenn,” Minerva encouraged.

“I, um... I think...I think walkers won't always be around. They'll go away, someday. 'Cause the world goes in cycles, right? Ice age, stone age, um, some other ages. So it's like that. This age'll end, and another one will start.”

“An age without walkers. Like before…” Clem reminisced solemnly. Tenn noticed AJ also had a solemn look on his face, but he seemed to be deep in thought.

“What’s wrong AJ?”

“I...I Just don’t know what it’s like. All of you do, but I don’t remember a time before monsters,” he confessed.

“Hey. Trust us, the world before this one, had its downsides,” Sophie tried cheering him up.

“And that feels like we should call it,” Louis piped up. The group watched as Aasim stood up and walked off to where Willy was sitting, and saw them walk inside after seemingly made up to go work on the traps. After they leave, their approached by Ruby.

“Hey, Clem. You’ve got lookout duty after me,” she reminded her.

“Actually, I can take both shifts. I’m not doing anything now.”

“Really? I thought you’d want to hang out a bit first,” Ruby asked surprised.

“I mean it. I’ve got this.”

“If you say so,” she said skeptically as she walked off to prepare for the potential attack. Clementine looked back at the remaining group, giving a curt nod to say ‘be ready,’ before heading towards the lookout tower, followed behind by AJ.

* * *

“The raiders… That guy. He’s gonna be with them,” AJ says flatly staring out at the treeline through a pair of binoculars.

“Abel. Yeah.” Clementine looks down at AJ with concern, something suddenly clicking for her. “Your bad dreams. They’re all about him, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Can I swear yet?” he asks abruptly. Clem gives him a disapproving look, making him draw his own conclusion.

“Because I would swear about his stupid face.”

“Try thinking about something else. Count how many walkers you see.”

“Same as before… 3,4,” he counts out loud as they appear.

“AJ, it’s okay if Abel frightens you.”

“There’s 10 monsters. He doesn’t frighten me,” AJ deflects, “but when he comes here, I call dibs. I’m the one that kills him.”

“No, AJ. he’s too dangerous,” Clem scolds.

“But-”

“No buts.” AJ diverts his attention back to the forest, suddenly seeing movement.

“Clem, I see something.”

“Not a walker?” AJ hands her the binoculars so that she could see for herself. Sure enough, there was a group of people surrounding a cage, pulled by horses, slowly approaching the school. 

“Good job, AJ. Come on, we have to tell the others.” They descended down the watchtower and headed to the courtyard, everyone else still there as Clem approached them.

“Raiders here?” Sophie asked frantically.

“They’re here. They’ve got about six more people, all carrying guns. And carts to carry people away,” Clementine reported.

“Assholes.”

“I can’t believe they’re really here.”

“ _If_ they get inside, I’ll keep them focused on me, to give Mitch and Willy time to set the bomb. If they manage to get in, we fall back to the admin building,” Clem continued.

“Hope those raiders like bricks,” Aasim jeered.

“So, uh, any final words of wisdom? You’ve faced them and won, sort of,” Louis asked nervously, dreading their impending fight.

“Try not to-” Clem was cut off as a gunshot rang out, Louis suddenly collapsed on the floor, everyone suddenly panicking. Clem looked up to see a sniper in a tree. “Hide! Now!” Everyone ran for cover as Clem running over to Louis to drag him to safety. Just as they finally made it, one of the raiders threw a molotov over the gate, gaining Clem’s attention getting her notice her bow on another table.

“My bow!”

“Go. I’ll be fine. I already got shot in the arm, what’s one more in the leg,” Louis tried to joke, but obviously forced. The pleading look on his face made her make up her mind as she vaulted over the table, grabbing the bow and flipping it over, pushing it forward. The raiders finally broke through the front gates, Clem taking notice of five of them, six including the sniper.

“Just, try to stay still, ok?” Louis gives a nod of confirmation, too much in pain, to speak. The raiders take note of all the walker scarecrows, banners, and barricades surrounding the school, but noting the lack of kids.

“Spread out,” Lilly commanded. Clementine stands up from her hiding spot, drawing her bow.

“Lilly! Move, and I’ll shoot.”

“Where’s our new recruits.”

“They’re not yours!” Lilly orders her soldiers to search the yard, aware that they were hiding somewhere, then ordering one of the, to shoot Clem if she moved.

“We’ll find your friends Clem, and take them. And you and your boy,” she threatened.

“Take me! Take me with you but leave everyone else,” Clem sacrificed.

“You’d do that? You’d come with me if I let the others go?”

“Yes.” Willy and Mitch continued to sneak around the yard with the bomb as Clem distracted them.

“You’ve changed.”

“I grew up.”

“I see that,” Lilly challenged, “you’re just like him. Lee would’ve been heartbroken, seeing the sweet little girl he protected turned out like this.”

“Don’t. Don’t ever say his name.”

“I knew Lee be-”

“Ever! Get out.”

“If you won’t help, I’ll find someone who will. We’ve recruited from this school before,” Lilly threatened. “I hate to break it to all of you, but Violet didn’t want to come along tonight,” she announced loud enough for everyone to hear.

“She said she was tired of this school and her friends here. Said she had a toxic ex-girlfriend here she was done with.” Minerva had a look of horror on her face hearing Lilly say that. She shouldn’t be surprised, since their relationship was going down hill, but did Violet really say that? Or was it a cheap ploy by Lilly to get them out of hiding. “Her best friends, who’d rather avoid and conflict and bury their heads in the sand then confront it.” Sophie and Louis both knew she was talking about them, not wanting to believe what she was saying. “She said the only one she actually missed was her ex’s little brother, she described as, ‘a sweet, little kid’.”

Clementine noticed Tenn in the bushes and gave him a pleading look shaking her head ‘no,’ Tenn returning a desperate look of wanting to know where his friend went and stepped out of hiding.

“Shit.”

“Where is she?”

“I’ll show you,” Lilly taunts.

“I can’t. Just bring her back. Please.” Clementine fired an arrow at Lilly but missed. Lilly tried to grab at Tennessee, but he jumped back before she could. Suddenly an explosion went off knocking Lilly and Tenn to the ground as Mitch and Willy ran back for cover. Everyone standing out of hiding and drawing their own bows. Clem fired another arrow, but Lilly moved out of the way. Seeing that Tenn was still within Lilly’s reach, Mitch took out his knife and came out of hiding and charged at Lilly, alerting her of his presence. Upon reflex, Lilly stabbed him the neck. Willy being restrained by Aasim as he tried to go to him.

“Godammit.” She takes the knife out of his neck and stabs him to prevent reanimation. “Kill who you have to! Take the rest!” she orders in fury. The raiders opening fire on the school as they all hide. With them focused on the others, Clem manages to shoot one of them in the leg.

“Go back!” she pleads to the kids to head to admin building. A few of them fire arrows before retreating inside. The downed raider takes the arrow out of his leg and limped his way joining up with the rest.

* * *

The kids were already at the top of the stairs as the raiders made their way inside. Clem took out her knife and cut the rope to the brick trap, killing one of them. They looked up to see they were running away.

“Kill that one, the girl!” Abel barked. The raider with him fired at Clem several times, missing as she took cover behind a couch that was set in the hall. Clem used it and pushed it down the stairs, trapping the raider as it pinned her to the wall.

“Fuckin’ pointless! I told Lilly you wouldn’t cooperate,” Abel yelled as he threw a molotov at the top of the stairs. Everyone moved back, while Clem and AJ went into the office.

“AJ, the door! Lock it!” Just as AJ was about to, Abel kicked the door open, knocking him backwards. As Abel approaches, Clem draws her knife and slashes his hand as he tries to grab her, falling to the floor in pain. Seeing a slight advantage, he kicks her in the knee, sending her falling and dropping her knife. Just as she scrambled to grab it, Abel recovers and punches her in the face, knocking her backwards as he pins an arm behind her back, pinning her to the table.

“Y’know, whenever I see someone like you: weak, small, afraid, and still alive? Well, bet a lot of folks died to get you here,” Abel taunted. Clem quickly grabbed a tiny statue off the desk with her free hand and stabbed Abel in the eye, releasing her as he stumbled backwards. AJ grabbed a fire poker and stabbed him in the foot. With Abel distracted, she charged him into the window, in an attempt to push him off the balcony. Clem and Abel pushed each other away, Clem smacking his hand and kneeing him in the groin. Abel quickly recovered and threw a punch that Clem blocked, followed by an uppercut to the stomach that pushed him over the edge, as Abel took Clem down with him.

Clementine came to, hearing the sounds of Abel screaming in agony as his leg was bent at an angle, blood gushing out of it, before he passes out. The sound of gun clicking diverts her attention to Lilly standing over her with a rifle pointed at her.

“Shit. This should be easy.”

“Then do it already. Shoot me,” Clem challenged.

“You’re betting I won’t.”

“I don’t care! Just get it over with.” Lilly presses the gun to her head. Clem closes her eyes, ready to accept her fate. Lilly is suddenly distracted by a screaming, firing and missing as she’s tackled to the ground by Sophie. Clem reorients herself after the ringing in her ears from the gunshot stops. She sees the two struggle and runs to grab her knife, Abel suddenly regained consciousness and tripping Clem in an attempt for him to try and pull her towards him. Clementine kicks him the face before Rosie jumps out of nowhere biting him on the arm. She manages to get away, suddenly aware of the fight going on in the courtyard, Sophie being dragged away by a raider, and Minerva trying to fight another one off.

Things were getting worse as walkers were flooding in, Lilly shooting some on the way out. Clem ran to grab her bow that was left on the floor and drew an arrow, only able to save Sophie or Minerva, couldn’t decide who to save. She closed her eyes and fired. When she opened her eyes, she saw Minerva manage to get away from a raider she was fighting, as another threw Sophie into the cart. Lilly was still shooting at walkers shambling in.

"We cut our losses! Pull in and fall back!” she ordered. One of the raiders slaps the horse to carry away the cart, the rest of the raiders running away to keep up with it. Before Lilly runs off, she throws a molotov down, setting the ground ablaze, leaving them to deal with the courtyard on fire and incoming walkers. Clem ran in the middle of the courtyard with her bow and fired at the walkers, some of them catching on fire. As if they weren’t a hassle to deal with enough on their own. Now they’re on fire. It had to be fire. Clem fired a few more arrows, as Ruby and Tenn killed a few walkers of their own before retreating as more flooded in. Soon enough, they managed to kill all the walkers. Once she noticed the courtyard was empty, Clem pants in exhaustion, as the remaining kids came out of hiding. She walks over to Tenn who was sitting down by the flagpole with his head in his hands in shame. He stands up when he notices her approach.

“Clem… I’m sorry. For trusting her.” Willy could be heard crying over Mitch’s deceased body, Ruby and Omar crouching next to him. Minerva came storming towards Clem.

“They took Aasim, Louis, and... Sophie!”

“We’ll get them back.”

“We don’t know where they are!” Minerva cried frantically.

“Well, we know someone who does.” The rest of the kids walked over to Abel, slouched down by the flagpole. Abel looked up in fear at the kids, knowing in his state he was now outmatched by them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to keep this short. like I said at the start, I get a bunch of ideas and end up scrapping some of them.  
> I had an idea to write all the older boys plus Sophie captured, Aasim, Mitch, and Sophie captured. I don't  
> think I ever had an idea or plan of writing Sophie not captured for some reason.
> 
> it might seem like the " _not everybody dies tag_ " is turning out to be a lie since I have three of the canon deaths still present  
> but I promise Mitch is the last one I swear. Something else I already had planned kind of requires his death so,  
> apologies to anyone who still wanted him around.


	11. Gone as a Girl Can Get

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> believe it or not, but I have next chapter finished already. I’ll be posting it tomorrow because... you  
> know me. Idk if it’ll be at a specific time but it’ll be out probably tomorrow night so look out for that.

The next morning for Ericson’s was a somber one, as the death of Mitch hung heavy over everyone. Especially for Willy, who crouched down by his corpse holding his lifeless hand. Clementine walks up behind him as Ruby digs a grave for him.

“Mitch… I… I…” Willy sobbed. “At the start I was so little, and...and Mitch looked after me. People said he was a dick sometimes, but he was always nice to me. And now... Now he's gone. Stabbed in the eye by some asshole who never even knew his name.”

“Willy, I promise, the people who did this? We’re going to make them regret coming near us,” Clementine assured, placing a hand on his shoulder in attempt to comfort him.

“If Mitch were here, he’d figure out a way to get our friends back. Then bash Lilly’s brains out with a rock,” he spat the last statement venomously. Minerva, Tenn, Omar, and Ruby walked up to Willy and Clem.

“We got… Abel tied up in the basement. He passed out from pain. AJ’s waiting for you,” Ruby commented to Clem.

“Thanks.”

Ruby crouched down next to Willy placing a hand on his shoulder. “It’s time to bury him. And say goodbye.”

Tenn looked down solemnly at him, feeling guilty about his death. “I’ll help you carry-”

“Get away from him! You’re the reason he’s dead!” Willy shouted pushing Tenn to the ground.

“Willy!” Ruby chastised.

“Well, it’s true! We had a plan and that idiot messed it up!”

“Hey! Cut that shi-” Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, Minerva grabbed Willy by the collar of his shirt, getting in his face.

“You can say whatever the hell you want, but don’t you dare, talk about my little brother,” Minerva threatened.

“But, Mitch-”

“Mitch made a decision to save Tenn. He wasn’t the one who got him killed. Lilly stabbed him.” Amongst the two arguing, Tenn took off towards the admin building.

“Tenn!” Minerva let go of Willy’s shirt shoving him back, before heading after Tenn. Ruby sighed in defeat, walking over to Clementine.

“Go and talk to Abel. Find out where our friends are. Me and Omar will deal with this mess. Don’t be afraid of doing whatever it takes to get him to talk,” Ruby threatened, more at Abel than Clem, wanting just as badly to get the bastard to fess up where their friends are. Clementine nodded her thanks and went down to “talk” to Abel.

* * *

Clementine, AJ, Minerva, and Willy walked through the forest in search of a boat that the others had been taken to, according to Abel. Clementine had her nose in the map that Marlon first gave her, making sure they were heading the right way.

“Once we find the boat, we’ll need to think of how to sneak on board.”

“Yeah, if Tenn doesn’t fuck it up this time.”

AJ stopped his pace and turned to face Willy. “It wasn’t Tenn’s fault.”

“Yes, it was! Mitch died because he-”

“Say one more thing about Tenn. I dare you,” AJ threatened.

“It’s right here,” Minerva pointed out getting the groups’ attention. Surely enough just a few feet away was a giant steamboat, sitting on the shoreline. The group snuck up to a few bushes between the treeline to get a better look, AJ observing through his binoculars.

“See anything?”

“The beach, um, a boat, and, uh… a wood street in the water.”

“It’s a pier,” Clementine clarified.

“Pier.”

“Keep your heads down and spread out. Focus on those.” The group broke off, and looked at different areas of the boat. Clementine and went to talk to AJ first, finding out they had a lot of torches and kept a few horses. She then went over to talk to Minerva to see if she saw anything.

“Ever see this boat before?”

“No! We never saw anything with Marlon keeping us confined to the safe zone,” she confirmed a bit irritated. Minerva huffed out a breath before continuing. “Looks like the pier is our way in.”

“Well, let’s see what else is down there.” Clem raised up the binoculars, noticing there was a fair amount of raiders on deck and the pier. Sudden movement caught her attention. “Wait! I see Louis!”

“This really is it than,” Minerva replied flatly. Grateful that they found where their friends are and they saw Louis was ok from what they could see, but hoping they could’ve at least had a sign Sophie was alright. She loved her friends, but for her, her family was a priority. Clementine pointed out a small opening that they could use to get inside and that they probably kept the prisoners below deck. And the lack of cover leading up to the deck. Gathering all the intel she needed, she checked in with Willy to see what he found.

“Anything useful?”

“Building material, furniture. Looks like from the train station.”

Clementine takes a look for herself and sees the raiders loading rafts with supplies and more torches, getting an idea for a distraction. She motions for Willy to leave, Minerva and AJ following. “We should get out of here, talk somewhere it’s safe.” They leave the area before they get spotted, not before Clem picks up a horseshoe, heading back into the forest.

“Any bright ideas?” Minerva asks.

“There's too many guards for us take on at once. We need to distract them while we sneak on board.”

“We should burn their stuff,” AJ comments.

“That’ll work. We burn the hay or their supplies and use the fire as a distraction.”

“Whatever we don’t burn we should take,” Willy replies. “Ruby would want the horses, but I want those supplies.”

“Yeah, we burn the hay as our distraction. If you’re going to steal from the rafts you have to do it carefully,” Clementine warns.

“Wouldn’t do it any other way.”

“The fire will lure away the raiders, while we sneak on board.”

“If anyone sees us, they’ll shoot,” Willy points out.

“Remember that guy James? He sent in walkers to save me and AJ. Maybe I can convince him to do it again.”

“Do you think he’ll do it?” Minerva questions.

“What about after we get everyone home? I mean, the raiders'll just come attack us again. What then?” Willy observes. Before Clem can respond, they all hear a loud whacking noise nearby seeing a raider chopping wood .

“Hide!” They all dart into the forest, hiding behind a tree. Clementine sees the raider still hasn’t noticed them yet.

“A raider?” AJ asks.

“Definitely. You guys stay here. I’ll see what they know.” Clementine draws out her knife and sneaks up to the raider. Once close enough, she presses it against their throat.

“Drop it.” The raider obeys and drops the axe, a slight increase in their breathing can be heard.

“How many of you are there and where are my friends?” Clementine interrogates.

“Is this a threat or a pr-”

“I’m not fucking around. Answer the question.”

“There’s eight. You’re friends are in the boiler deck. Second deck,” the raider replies flatly.

“Wait!” comes Minerva’s voice. With Clementine distracted, the raider breaks free of her hold and turns to face her interrogator.

“It’s… Violet.” Standing there was indeed Violet, but with a few noticeable differences about her. She was wearing black jeans instead of a faded brown, her ‘Camp Paya’ button seemed to be missing, fingerless gloves, and the most obvious being an eyepatch. Minerva and Violet stared at each other before they briefly embraced each other in a hug, Violet more so reluctantly.

“They told me about the attack and I wondered who survived,” Violet remarks monotonously, crossing her arms.

“Ruby and Tenn made it. Mitch didn’t. And Brody… she died,” Willy confirmed. Violet’s expression didn’t change, save for a downtrodden look at the mention of Brody. She cast a glance back up at Clementine.

"So you're Clementine. The one who took over after, Marlon bit the dust?"

“And if I am?” Clementine challenged.

“Nothing. Not like I really expected anyone to step up and take charge. Aasim, maybe. Mitch… I doubt it. And asking anyone else to lead?” Violet scoffed at her last remark. Clementine raised an eyebrow at Violet’s callous tone about everyone back at the school, her supposed friends. “The plan was talking Marlon into handing everyone over, like he did last time. Good job. You really messed that up.”

“What? You’re glad he gave you away?” Minerva asked appalled.

“Goddammit! I was being sarcastic, Minerva. I thought you’d understand that of all people,” she snapped. Minerva reeled back in shock, surprised at her outburst, more so at what she said.

“Whatever. Marlon was an asshole, but he tried to deescalate a bad situation and, at least no one died.”

“No one died? He murdered Brody!” Clem pointed out.

“What?!” The news of Brody’s death shocked Violet. They did just tell her Brody died, but they didn’t say how. She assumed she died during the attack, not that Marlon murdered her. Thinking about it, she suddenly realized why.

“Violet… what-”

“Violet!” Lilly called out from afar. Clem’s group runs and hides back into the trees, waiting till Lilly leaves.

“Rockingham,” Violet responds.

“Finish up and head in before it gets dark,” she orders. Violet sideyes Clem out of her peripheral vision. She could rat them out now.

“Yes, ma’am.” Lilly turns and leaves, heading back to the boat. After she leaves, Violet picks up her axe she dropped and walks over to Clementine. “The boat’s leaving soon. We’ll be back in another two weeks, but if you think about doing anything that’s going to get anyone else killed, it’s your ass,” she threatened.

“It's not too late, Violet. You could come back to the school with us.”

“I… can’t.” Without further explanation, Violet took off and followed Lilly to the boat. As she left, the others came out of hiding. Clem turning towards Minerva.

“You okay?”

“The plan hasn’t changed has it?” she remarks defensively before storming off. Clem and the others speed up to catch up to her.

“Y’all should head home. Get things ready, make sure everyone knows the plan,” Clementine directed.

“Everyone except Tenn.”

“I warned you…”

“Enough! Both of you. AJ, you and I will go find James.” Minerva turned to Clem before leaving.

“Don’t die.” As the pairs went their separate ways, Minerva whacked Willy on the back of the head, not having forgotten his earlier comments about Tenn.

* * *

Clementine and AJ arrived back at Ericson’s hours later after doing James’ “walker waltz,” trying to convince him to use walkers as cover to get their friends back. The two walked down the hallway heading back to their dorm, AJ still enthralled by James’ “uniqueness” concerning the walkers.

“I like James. He doesn’t kill monsters… but he’s not afraid of them. I think he’s pretty cool!” AJ enthused.

“Yeah, he’s definitely-” Clementine was cut short as they heard yelling in the hallway.

“But I want to help!”

“And I want you safe! I’m not going to let get involved with one of Clementine’s half-baked suicide missions.” Uh oh. It sounded like Minerva. And Clem’s name coming from her usually wasn’t good news. Not that they hated each other. Like everyone else at the school, they were all friends with each other, but Clementine and Minerva, weren’t exactly on the best of terms. Mainly due to having differing ideas on how things should be handled. Specifically, with the raiders. As Clem and AJ approached the arguing siblings, Tennessee took off running, brushing past them as they walked by.

“What was that all about?” Clem asked gesturing towards Tenn’s departure.

“He wants to come along on the rescue mission. I told him no and he got mad about it,” Minerva answered flatly. Clementine and AJ glanced at each other, thinking the same thing.

“Look, Sophie already got taken by these raiders, I don’t wanna lose my little brother too. I’d feel much better knowing that he’s back home and safe so I won’t have to worry about him as much,” she clarified. Clem took a step closer to her, placing a hand on AJ’s shoulder.

“I get it. Believe it or not, I still worry about AJ sometimes, but you can’t exactly hold them back or shelter them forever. It’s not good for them. Trust me, I’ve seen it before.”

“I’m not sheltering him! It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s just that he has a tendency to get himself and others hurt, and for my own peace of mind, I’d rather him stay here.” Minerva sighed in exhaust, reaching into her pocket. “Here, Omar told me to give you this. He wanted you to have it,” she held out her hand, holding a rabbit’s foot. Clem took the foot and stuffed it in her back pocket.

“Thanks.”

“He said ‘well clearly it doesn’t work.’ Could work as a decoration though. Oh, and Ruby wants to borrow your heater by the way. Something about using it for some party she’s throwing.”

“Party?” Clem inquired.

“One last ‘hoorah’ before our fight.” Minerva let out a deep breath through her nose. “Can I talk to you when you get a minute?”

“Uh, sure. Tell Ruby I’ll bring her the heater.” Minerva nodded her thanks and went back towards her room, while Clem and AJ went inside their room. AJ immediately pulls out a paper and coloring pencils to make a drawing for the party. Clementine hangs up a few knick-knacks around the room before grabbing the heater for Ruby.

“I’m finished, Clem, look!” AJ announced wanting to show off his drawing. Clem walked next to AJ, taking in his artwork.

“Hey, you’re getting pretty good. You might just give Tenn a run for his money,” she joked.

“Maybe. He’s really good though.” AJ casts a downtrodden look, staring off into space.

“You okay, kiddo?”

“I’ve just been thinking about stuff. Like when you killed Abel. His eyes… they looked like you blew a candle out. He was a bad guy. I know I shouldn’t feel this way, and I hated him, too,” he explained.

“What you’re feeling is okay, AJ. It makes you a good person.” AJ walks to the center of the room standing underneath the wind-chimes.

“I’m getting real smart, too.”

“Oh, really,” Clem teased.

“Yeah. Because I’m thinking all the time.”

“Okay. What’re you thinking right now?”

“You getting bit. Turning into a monster,” he answered. Clementine let out a shocked and solemn ‘oh,’ surprised to hear his answer. She knew this conversation would always come up eventually. “Yeah, the older I get, the more I see it. I don’t know why. What then?”

“AJ. We talked about this a lot. You know what has to happen,” Clem answered firmly.

“I don’t wanna talk about this anymore.”

“But you brought it up. So we’re going to,” she commanded.

“It does something weird to my stomach. Like I’m going to get the dookies.”

“AJ, I need you to remember what we talked about. What you’ll do if it happens. If I get bit, you’ll...”

“No. No, I’m not going to do that,” AJ protested.

“You promised.”

“I don’t care. If you get bit, I’d want you to bite me too.”

“What?!”

“I don’t want to be alone. I know we talked about it, Clem, but please don’t make me do it,” AJ pleaded fearfully.

“Alvin Junior, you have a gun, shoot me. No gun, use your knife. No knife, a rock to the head. As many times as you have to,” Clementine demanded.

“I said I don’t wanna!”

“I don’t care what you said. You’ll do it.”

“I don’t care what you say!”

“Godammit, AJ!” Clementine exhaled a breath and crouched down to his height, softening her tone. “You can’t break promises AJ.”

“I know.”

“You’re not letting this go?”

“James said we could be around when we’re monsters. On the inside. If you got bit, and bit me, we’d still be together. Just a different together. You think so?”

“Even if James is right, there’s no way to prove that. If we can’t prove it, we’re not going to risk our lives over it,” Clem clarified for him, trying to break it to him gently. AJ sighed in defeat, walking over to the desk to grab his gun.

“Can I go patrol for a bit? Before the party?”

“Go ahead. But be careful. I’ll be in Minnie’s room if you need me,” Clem relented. AJ opened the door and dashed out in the hallway. Clementine let out a deep breath and made her way to Minerva’s room. She waited a few seconds outside her door after knocking before she hears a faint ‘it’s open.’ Clementine opens up the door to see Minerva sitting on her bed staring off into space.

“You wanted to talk?”

“Yeah. Do you mind closing the door?” Clementine obliged and sat on the bed on the opposite side of the room, this feeling eerily similar to her first night at Ericson’s.

“Why did you save me?” she asked bluntly. Clem reeled in shock.

“I don’t know. I didn’t even think, I just fired. I wasn’t even sure I even hit anyone.” Minerva shook her head in dismay, hoping for a ‘better’ explanation. “I also wanted to talk about… Violet. I- She seemed different somehow.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was like she was there… but not there. She… she called me ‘Minerva.’”

“And?”

“She hardly ever called me ‘Minerva.’ It was always ‘Minnie.’ The only time anyone calls me ‘Minerva,’ is Sophie when she’s pissed at me,” Minerva explained.

“So what are you saying?” Clementine probed.

“Sophie told me about your talk. How you hope there’s a chance we can save her. Seeing her in the woods, it seemed like she didn’t care one way or the other about us. And if we can trust what Lilly said, she’s cut ties with us. But it also seemed like she didn’t care much for being with the raiders either. It’s like she‘s just there,” Minerva laid all out, taking in what she was saying herself, as well explaining it to Clementine.

“I’m not going back on what I said. If we can save her, we’re bringing her back,” Clem affirmed. Minerva looked up at her in shock, letting out a sigh of defeat.

“Well, there’s a lot I want to talk to you about but, I’m good for now. I should probably see if Ruby needs any help for the party.” As Minerva stood up to leave, the door burst open as AJ came in with a beach ball, tossing it to Clem. Clem laughs in delight.

“Where did you find a beach ball?”

“I found it behind one of the dorms in some garbage. I blew it up and… and it was pretty gross. But look! It works!” he cheers.

"I should head out. See you at the party.” As Minerva leaves, AJ turns his attention back to Clem.

“It’s cool, right?”

“Super cool.” The two volley the ball back and forth before Clem sets it down, crouching and opening her arms out for a hug, AJ reciprocating.

“I love you, Clem.”

“I love you back, kiddo.” Clem pulls apart the hug and stands up to her full height. “Okay, let’s head to the music room. It's party time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so fun fact: the chapter title is based off an episode title from _Wynonna Earp_... which is  
> also the name of a country song. I think a lot of episodes are country songs. Whiskey Lullaby, I Walk the Line,  
> If We Make it Through December, etc... I had this idea before I named this chapter but I wanted to do something  
> Wynonna Earp based bc... Idk? why not.
> 
> also, I almost forgot the hallway scene between Minerva and Clementine was something  
> I was going to add in. and as for next chapter I'm kind of... anxious, about one scene I've written which I'll explain more in it. I also don't know if I should add James in the tags, or even if I'll be writing more of him.


	12. I Hope You Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids at Ericson throw one last hooray before preparing the rescue mission.  
> Sneak on board the ship, rescue their friends, get out. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gone as a Girl Can Get: Part 2
> 
> shout out to [LindexFV](archiveofourown.org/users/LindexFV/pseuds/LindexFV) and [TheDarkPokeMaster](archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkPokeMaster/pseuds/TheDarkPokeMaster) (ily) for  
> offering head-canons on the twins' backstory. I'm sure there are several head-canons for the twins, but obviously I can only write one. Unless I try to write every single backstory possible for them. I'll explain more about why I was a bit anxious writing the twins' backstory at the end. ngl there was another scene that was... difficult to write. Mainly bc I didn't know what to write for it. Specifically dialogue-wise.

As Clementine and AJ walk into the music room, they see Tenn and Minerva setting things up, Ruby walking their way as Clementine hands her the heater.

“Things are looking great Ruby.”

“We just need to add some music, lighting, and something to put on that banner,” she gestures to the banner on the floor.

“Party like the last night of our lives, right?” Clementine walks over to an old gramophone laid out in the middle of the room.

“Music? But Louis isn’t here,” AJ pointed out.

“This thing plays music just as well. I’ll show you,” Minerva offered to AJ.

“We can use the headmaster’s old gramophone and play some tunes. Not really a music library, but we’ll make it work. Say what you want to listen to.”

“Got any indie records?” Clem casually asked.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Minerva continued explaining how a gramophone works to AJ while Clementine diverted her attention to three different colored jars set on a low table.

“Every party needs some mood lighting. I’ve been debating colors for hours. I was hoping to complement the room's natural moonlight.”

“Well, purple was my dad’s favorite color.” At the mention of the color purple, Minerva’s fight-or-flight response activated, glancing at the two in fear.

“Something wrong with purple, Minnie?” Ruby teased.

“What? Uh, no. Purple’s fine.” Ruby and Clem gave each other a look in mutual amusement, turning to look at the blank banner laying on the floor.

“Is the banner some kind of party theme?”

“Meant to be more, motivational. Not a lot of room so, try to keep it short. I was thinking something uplifting, y’know?”

“See you on the other side.”

“That’s what Clem says to me when she needs me to brave,” AJ pipes up, no longer focusing on the gramophone.

“I think we all need some of that right now,” Ruby replied. “Alright. We’ll have Tenn break out the paint and write it out. This place is gonna look great. Oh, Willy is up in Marlon’s office. Said he had something to show ya.” Clem nods her thanks to Ruby and heads upstairs to check on Willy. When she gets up there she sees him nose deep in a book with a bunch of other books scattered around him, and some weird device duct-taped together.

“Clem! Check it out! I found a bunch of books on ships, about fires at sea and explosions and stuff. The key is the boiler,” Willy lays out all at once enthusiastically.

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I have an idea on how to stop those assholes from coming back after we’ve rescued the others. And from hurting anyone else ever again,” he pauses dramatically, “we’re going to blow up the boat. To make sure they don’t come back. And it feels right. You know… for Mitch.”

“Uh, no offense Willy but, we’ll be on that boat. That sounds like it’ll kill us,” Clem cautioned.

“What? No! I mean, yeah, I still have a few details to work out, but don't worry. I'll make sure there's time to get off the boat before it goes. Trust me. It’ll work.” Ruby calls down for them to join the party, the sound of music heard from the music room up to the office. Clementine turns to leave ready to head downstairs before she’s stopped by Willy.

“And, Clem. I’m sorry about before. For how I treated Tenn. Minnie told me she talked to him, and I know it wasn’t his fault.”

“That’s nice, but don’t tell me, tell Tenn.” Clementine and Willy head down to the music room, an old indie record playing and bathed in soft purple light, and a banner hung up in big, bold letters, ‘SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!’ AJ was dancing along to the music while Minerva watched, seeming to enjoy herself for once. Willy walks up to Tenn and shows him the bomb, as the two sit down and work on it together.

“This looks great Ruby!” Clementine applauds.

“Couldn’t've done it without you. But I’ve got something else planned. Go ahead and mingle. I’ll call you over.” Clementine walks over to Willy and Tenn discussing the bomb, glad that they made up.

“I see you two are working together.”

“Willy asked me to help with his ‘special project.’”

“Well, that’s nice. Is it ready?” Clem asks.

“Good to go!” Willy cheers, “actually, I was thinking maybe we should name it?”

“Damn right we should.”

“I thought you'd make fun of me, but... Hell yeah, let's name this fucker.”

“How about, Mitch’s Masterpiece?” Clementine suggests.

“Yeah, I like that,” Willy replies fondly.

“Mitch would’ve too,” Ruby chimes in. Clem stands up and sees Minerva smiling at AJ, still dancing his heart away. Ruby calling out suddenly gets her attention.

“I found them!” Ruby comes down the ladder carrying a cardboard box, setting it on the floor. Everyone gathers around, knowing where this was going. “Okay, Clementine, these are our official Ericson's psych evaluations and probationary reports.”

“Okay?” The rest of the kids sit down to join the ‘game.’

“They explain why we sent got here in the first place.”

“And why the adults still considered us ‘juvenile delinquents unfit to return home,’” Minerva pipes in. Clementine and AJ sit down to join in.

“So… what’s the game?”

“Figured if we’re going on this crazy mission together, you ought to know who we are,” Ruby explains. She reaches into the box and takes out one of the files. “I’ll read what the _adults_ thought about us, and you guess who fits the bill. I’ll make sure it’s someone you know. ‘While otherwise a remarkable student 'Blank' continues to be plagued by fits of anger, uncontrollable cursing, and repeated physical altercations with the senior faculty…’" Clementine sits and thinks about the file description and thinks about all the kids she’s met so far.

“You know what, Ruby? I’ll bet you’re reading your own file,” she answers smugly. Ruby laughs in amusement, Willy gasping in surprise.

“How’d you guess that?” he asks.

“That was… pretty amazing,” Minerva chuckles.

“I can totally see it. The first time I met Ruby, she was all, ‘That little motherfucker…!’” Clem imitates Ruby’s country accent, recalling back to the day they first met, everyone laughing in amusement, AJ still feeling bad how their first interaction was him biting her finger.

“Sweet, innocent Ruby, was terrifying back in the day,” Minerva comments. Ruby chuckles at her comment.

“Don’t worry. That was a _long_ time ago,” she says adding a wink.

“You guys want to know why I got sent here?” Willy cuts in.

“Willy, for the love of god-”

“Chronic masturbation!” The room goes silent as Clementine stares in horror, Ruby face-palming and shaking her head in dismay.

“Why would _anyone_ wanted to have known that?” Minerva asks irritated. Willy shrinks in on himself, now feeling guilty.

“What’s that mean?” AJ asks innocently.

“Uh-uh. Don’t you dare,” Clem points at everyone accusedly. Tenn leans over next to AJ and whispers in his ear. AJ’s expression morphs into a look of pure confusion and slight disgust.

“Why don’t we… change up the music,” Ruby tries changing the subject.

“No, it’s fine. Everyone seems to like this.” With no objections, Ruby goes back to searching through the files for Clem to guess, not realizing how many there were.

“I didn’t realize how many of us we’d lost.”

“Remember that Justin guy?”

“And Therissa, Jasper, that girl with the colored braces. And Joey... Maddie. Lamar,” Tenn adds.

“Erin. The one with the braces,” Minerva comments.

“ Alex. Dewey. Trey. Stephanie. Holy crap, how many of us died?” Willy asks, continuing the long list of deceased students.

“34.” Ruby takes out another file but doesn’t even open it up.

“Whose is it?” Clementine asks.

“Louis.”

“Should we read it?” Willy asks apprehensively.

“I, uh, I could tell my story. It’s kind of… disturbing but,” Minerva trailed off.

“As long as you want to,” Clem answered in earnest. Minerva took in a deep breath, the music slowly fading out.

“My parents weren’t exactly… religious. Growing up I don’t think we’ve ever _seen_ a church. But they were a bit on the, conservative side. To an extreme. And from a young age, I knew I was, “different,” I just didn’t know what it was. I never really thought of guys in a romantic sense the way most girls would. Or romance in general. But when I did… I tended to lean more towards girls. Then I eventually ended up dating a girl. We went out for awhile, and then one day my parents found out, and then they freaked. They tried to get me to change for two weeks. When they ‘failed’... they shipped me to Ericson’s.”

A silence hung heavy over the room, the weight of Minerva’s story hanging over them like a cloud, no one knowing what to say that would be appropriate.

“I’m, so sorry Minnie. If your parents can’t accept you for who you are, then they’re not your parents,” Clementine tries consoling.

“It’s fine. Thanks, Clem, but I’ve gotten over it.”

“Sorry. This was supposed to be fun. Louis is usually better at this,” Ruby apologizes.

“I’ve got an idea,” Tenn pipes up, “Minnie, remember how you used to sing ‘Don’t Be Afraid,’ when we got scared?”

“I do. Lou could’ve played it, though.”

“Didn’t you help compose it with him? You can still sing it.” Minerva slightly chuckles to herself.

“Alright. Fine, I’ll do it.” Minerva stands up from the circle, everyone’s attention on her as she prepares to sing.

_["Never mind the darkness  
Never mind the storm  
Never mind the blood red moon  
The night will be over soon..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we8YDDheABo) _

* * *

By nightfall, the remaining kids at Ericson’s arrived at the shoreline, preparing to get their friends back. Tennessee stayed home, Omar agreeing to look out for him, promising Minerva to keep him out of trouble, and to “tie down the fort,” while they were away. A walker collapses a few feet away in front of them as the raiders shoot it down. Clementine drags it towards them to use as part of their to sneak on board. Ruby looks down in disgust at the fallen corpse.

“Ugh. I guess we’re doing this.”

“Only the team blending in need to cover themselves.”

“Now we just need your walker friend to-”

“He’s here!” AJ announced, turning around to see James standing right behind them wearing his walker mask.

“Good Lord.” The group turns around in surprise, startled by his sudden appearance seemingly out of nowhere.

“Uh… hello,” James greets awkwardly. Clementine stands next to him, introducing him to the others.

“Guys, this is James.”

“He’s my friend,” AJ adds. Everyone just stares awkwardly at James in turn, as they also don’t know what to say, seeing someone going around wearing a mask made of walker skin. Willy suddenly runs up to him in excitement, seemingly fascinated by him.

“Cool! How do you get the skin like that?” he asks, referring to the mask.

“Willy. Focus. Now’s not the time,” Clem snaps.

“Right. Sorry. Oh, and sorry I tried to shoot you that one time. Your mask looks so real.”

“Uh, hey, James. Thanks for helping us, I guess,” Minerva speaks up.

“Your welcome. Uh, Clementine, could I speak to you for a moment?” Clementine and James walk a few feet away from the others allowing them to speak in private. James mentions how he’s surprised by her friends' reactions and how they’re different compared to most interactions he’s had before, appreciating the offer of becoming friends with them. He takes out a photo from his back pocket, showing it to Clem.

“This is… was… my boyfriend, Charlie. We joined the Whisperers’ together but, it changed him,” he says putting the photo away.

“What do you mean?”

“They were my family from a young age. I witnessed a lot of death and suffering, eventually becoming the cause of it. Weakness was considered a poison, and I believed it, fiercely. So much so that when another boy expressed sympathy for our enemy before an attack…” he trailed off, burying his face in his hand, “I slit his throat.” Clementine reels in shock, hearing that from him who’s normally so passive. He doesn’t even kill walkers. She lets him vent more waiting to hear what he was getting at.

“After he died, I kept hearing his words in my head: ‘Those people are like us, on a different path.’ I stopped killing after. But no one else did. When AJ told me he killed someone, it reminded me of them. Of myself. But when he told me it was wrong, it just sounded like he was repeating what he was told.” Clementine and James both steal a glance over to the boy in question.

“Taking life like that so young... it breaks something inside you. I’m afraid if AJ kills again, he won’t go back.”

“I won’t let him become a killer. I don’t want him to change. Not like that,” Clementine assures.

“I hope you can keep that promise.” The herd reaches the forest as James walks off to join them to lead them towards the boat. Clementine joins the others and remind them of the plan.

“He’s ready. The walkers are close. Ruby, you’ve got the horses. Willy, take care of the supplies.” Minerva holds up the bomb that they planned on using to blow the boat.

“Find the boiler and put it in there,” Willy reminds. Clementine looks around at her team before parting a ‘good luck.’

“See you on the other side.” Ruby and Willy leave to take care of their respective assignments, AJ goes to cut open the walker that was shot down. Clem notices Minerva standing off by a tree and walks up to meet her. "Hey.”

“Clem? About what I said earlier about having more to say. I honestly think you’re slightly suicidal and subconsciously have a death wish.” Clementine doesn’t change her expression but internally reels in shock about her feelings towards her, letting her get off her chest what she needs to say. “I’m terrified right now, our friends got taken away, and we’re risking a lot to get them back. And I’m scared someone else is going to die in there, and believe it or not, but I don’t want to blame you, but this was all your idea so I will, if anyone else gets hurt.”

Clementine gives a brief nod, as if trying to say she promises not to let that happen. AJ comes out from behind the bushes to get their attention, leading them over to the walker he was cutting up. Both Clementine and Minerva look down at it in disgust.

“What are we doing?”

“So, believe it or not, this helps cover your smell.”

“Oh, gross.” Clem, Minnie, and AJ, dig their hands into the cut open walker and smear its guts over themselves. After thoroughly coating themselves in walker guts, they approach the herd as it passes by, joining them and slowly making their way to the pier, as they hear shouting, about the walkers and the horses being spooked off. They silently thank Ruby for that. They soon get to the pier and hide behind boxes for cover, awaiting for Willy to take care of the supplies.

“Supplies going overboard!” Right on cue. One of the raiders starts firing off rounds before vaulting over the boxes they were using as cover and runs over to the supplies.

“Okay. Now’s our chance,” Clem orders. They head into the water, shimmying their way along the dock to get in closer. Clementine peeks over the dock, ducking seeing a raider heading their way. She orders AJ and Minerva to follow her underwater to the other side of the dock. She lets them climb the ladder first, as a walker grabs her foot, pulling her under. She repeatedly kicks it until it finally lets her go, resurfacing as Minerva helps her out of the water, with Clem coughing water out her lungs.

“Shit. You good?” she asks concerned.

“I’m- Hide!” The trio duck behind cover as a searchlight shines their way. They sneak along the dock avoiding the searchlight, finally making it to the small opening. Minerva helps AJ through, while Clementine kills incoming walkers. They finally make it inside, noticing that they must be getting close to where the others were being held. They sneak past guards, turning down a corridor into another room where the boiler is located.

“Hey, is this the boiler?” Minerva points out.

“Looks like it.”

“There’s too much stuff in the way.”

“We’ll look for another way in.” The trio head into the next room, seeing a raider standing by firing off rounds at the walkers. Clem sneaks in first, firing in arrow at his neck, Minerva and AJ coming in, approaching the boiler. Clem opens it up and takes the bomb from Minerva, placing it inside. “There you go, Mitch’s Masterpiece.”

“Put this nightmare behind us.”

“Once this boat starts, we won’t have much time before it goes.” AJ and Minerva nod, following behind as they make their way up to the second deck. They overhear a conversation between two of the raiders, one of their voices’ sounding familiar. As they get closer, they see Violet standing guard with a crossbow hung at her side.

“You said you're done with them. Your family is Delta now, anyway. Remember that,” the raider marks bitterly. They see Violet give her a cold, hard glare.

“Yes, ma’am.” The raider leaves, leaving Violet to stand guard.

“Dammit! Do we have to sneak past her?” Minerva whispers. Clementine comes out from behind cover, drawing her bow at Violet, drawing her crossbow in turn.

“Leave. Now,” she commands bitterly. AJ and Minerva follow behind, brandishing their weapons at her. Violet takes a look at the three of them, seeing she's clearly outnumbered. She could still shoot one of them, but she’d still be outnumbered and it’d take too long to reload.

“Fuck. I’ll help you get everyone out. But I never want to see your face, again.” The four of them approach the cells, Louis and Aasim gasping out in shock, surprised to see her.

“Clem?” “Shit.”

“You guys okay?” Clem rushes over to them.

“I’ve had worse days, but you might want to check on Sophie,” Louis responds. The sound of metal clanking gets Clem’s attention as she sees Violet unlocking Sophie’s cell, staring at her and not saying a word. Clementine enters the cell, while Violet helps the others. She walks up to check on her, when suddenly she gets knocked on the back of her head. Everything in Clem’s vision goes in and out of focus, but she sees Violet pointing her crossbow at AJ, Minerva and Violet shouting at each other before she blacks out.

* * *

Clem wakes up later and sees Sophie staring at her with a neutral expression, slightly smiling once Clementine fully reorients herself, fully noticing her.

“Sophie? Are you alright?” Sophie shocks her as she doesn’t say anything, throws herself at her, giving Clem a hug.

“About time you showed up!” Sophie comments in her usual jovial self. As they pull apart, Clementine notices a few bruises, and a black eye.

“What happened to you?” Clem asks in concern. Sophie gives her usual cheery smile and chuckles, which only frightens Clem more than seeing her battered state.

“Got kicked the crap out of, cracked a few ribs, normal Tuesday.” Her light-hearted demeanor doesn’t ease Clem’s worries.

“We’re going home." Clementine stands up and walks over to the door of their cell and sees AJ and Minerva were put in a cell right across from them. She cries out in relief seeing AJ was alright. She looks around the brig looking for a way out, noticing the latch at the bottom of the door on all cells.

“If I had a tool or-” she pats her back pocket, searching for her knife, “dammit! AJ! Do you still have your knife?”

“Yeah, they didn’t find it. Only the big one,” he answers, pulling out his shiv.

“Good. I need you to slide it over to me.” AJ slides the shiv underneath the door to Clem’s cell. She picks it up and chips at the rusted welds on the door. One of the raiders banging on the door startled her, making her drop the shiv.

“Hey! Whatever you’re doing… Don’t. Step back.”

“She awake?” They hear another voice approaching.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. I’ll take it from here.” Lilly. “Good. I’ll take it from here.” Lilly. She walks up to Clementine’s cell and pulls out her pistol, pointing it at her. “Violet. Open the door.” Violet wordlessly obeys and unlocks Clementine’s cell, as Lilly walks in. Clementine takes a step back, kicking the shiv underneath the bed.

“I should shoot you and toss you overboard, for all the trouble you’ve caused… But I’m genuinely impressed. First you organize these idiot kids into a fighting force, kill two of my most experienced soldiers, and sneak onto my boat under the cover of a herd? I bring a prize like you to the Delta, it might make this whole clusterfuck of a mission worth it. Someone like you, so young, with so much potential... You're far too valuable to kill.”

“If I’m the one you want, let the others go,” Clementine sacrifices.

“A fighter and selfless to the end, I admire that. But that’s not going to work.” Lilly walks over to the bed in the center of the cell and sits down, Violet entering the cell after her. “You remember my father, Larry? When I was a kid, he had all kinds of rules. What he hated the most was waste, and anytime I left the light on, he’d flip. No matter how much he ranted about electricity bills, I could never remember to hit that switch.”

“So?”

“One day he let our power get cut. He liked ‘illustrations,’ to show actions have consequences. No more TV, hair dryer, or ice cream sandwiches. Just a sad miserable family sitting in the dark.”

“I always knew your dad was a genius,” Clementine marks sarcastically.

“It was extreme, but I never left the lights on again. My father had his faults, but he showed me the effectiveness of teaching by example.”

“That’s what this is? A lesson?”

“Some would agree that drastic measures are necessary, to show the consequences of actions. Isn’t that right, Violet?” She glances over to Violet, her sights still aimed at Clementine, holding up the crossbow.

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?” Lilly goaded.

“We do what it takes to survive. Actions have consequences, and those who don’t obey have to be punished, no matter how extreme,” she replies flatly.

Minerva feels a lump in her throat, the Violet she knew was definitely gone to her. “Violet! I thought you of all people would be the last to be okay with this! You know what I’m talking about!” she screams. Lilly shakes her head, standing up from the bed.

“Pull the mouthy one out of the cell.”

Dorian opens Minerva and AJ’s cell, AJ standing in front of Minerva defensively, threatening not to hurt her.

“Ey yo. You better cool it before you get yourself hurt.” She grabs Minerva by the arm, as AJ grabs onto her wrist and bites down. Dorian screams in pain before kicking him off, knocking him to the ground.

“AJ!” Dorian looks down at her wrist and notices the torn sleeve and the excessive blood pouring out of her wrist, noticing AJ spitting out cloth and a chunk of skin. She clutches her wrist and kicks AJ in the face, Clem crying out in anguish for them to stop.

“That’s enough!” Lilly barks.

“He bit me!”

“I said enough!”

“We’ll kill you!” AJ squeaks out. Lilly walks up to AJ, staring him down. “I know I can do it. I killed Marlon. He wasn’t a monster but you are!” AJ mimics firing a gun at Lilly and pulling the trigger, staring at her with anger in his eyes. “Bang.”

“So _you_ killed Marlon?” she crouches down at eye level with him.

“Lilly! Leave him alone!” Clem cries out.

“Clem seems to care a lot about you. You and I are going to have a chat.” Lilly grabs AJ, dragging him out of the cell. Clementine rushes to his aid, but is stopped by Violet closing the door on her.

“Don’t fucking touch him!”

“Clem!”

“No! Please!”

“CLEMENTINE!”

“Keep an eye on her,” Lilly orders to Violet. “Get this thing moving. We’re leaving. Now!” Her and Dorian leave the holding brig, Lilly heading to the top deck, and the other going to the boiler. Violet notices the harsh stare Clem gives her from her cell.

“Don’t. Do you think this is easy for me what I’m doing?!”

“Who are you?! The Violet I knew would never let this stand!” Minerva yells. With Violet distracted and her back turned, Clem retrieves the shiv she dropped and starts chipping away at the rusted welds.

“Vi… Please, I’m sorry for trusting Marlon. That we never looked for you. I’m sorry I was never there for you when we were together. If I had a chance to do it over again, I would,” Minerva pleads. Clementine chips away the last weld, pulling the sheet from the door and lifting the latch.

“Do you really think, of all things, that’s what I care about now? I am done! Whether I like it or not, this is my life now,” Violet says turning back to face Clem. As she does, Clem takes a step back and rams the door open, knocking Violet over and dropping her crossbow. She runs over to open Minerva’s cell.

“Clem! Watch out!” Clementine turns around just in time to block Violet as she tries to stab her, Violet counteracting by kicking her in the knee and pushing her to the floor. As she falls down, Violet just barely stabs her in the chest, Clem grunting in pain. As she struggles to push Violet and the knife off of her, Sophie runs out of the cell and picks up the crossbow.

“Violet!”

“You’re not going anywhere!”

“Fuck.” As Violet raises the knife for a final blow, Sophie fires, the bolt striking Violet in the shoulder, as she falls off of Clem. Sophie runs over to Violet, bleeding out from her shoulder, holding her while Clem unlocks Louis and Aasim’s cell. Once freed, she runs back over to Sophie.

“Come on, we have to go!”

“Just... go, I’ll catch up,” Sophie begs.

“Clem! We need to go!” Aasim cries out.

“I need to find AJ.” Without another word, she runs outside to the upper deck to confront Lilly. Minerva is just about to leave with Louis and Aasim before she’s stopped by Sophie, still holding Violet, wounded by the crossbolt.

“Minerva! She’s right here.” Minerva looks down at Violet, staring back at her in pain, gripping at her shoulder.

“Minerva!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I used the headcanon suggested that the twins' parents were radicals and considered being gay a  
> 'mental illness.' Unfortunately we actually have people like that. My first thought to the suggestion was 'oh  
> so the original headcanon of why Violet was sent away.
> 
> I hope the way I wrote it didn't come off as "romanticizing" or anything. As a member of the LGBT community, that's not my intent and I'm well aware that this is unfortunately a situation people are actually dealing with  
> and to anyone going through that or that has, my heart goes out to you and I hope that you are and will be in a better  
> situation.
> 
> www.pflag.com  
> The Trevor Project: (866) 488-7386 (www.thetrevorproject.org)/  
> National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-8255 (suicidepreventionlifeline.org)/  
> Crisis Text Line: Text START to 741-741


	13. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bomb went off and Ericsons' are making their escape and everyone has made it out alive.  
> And by everyone, that means _all_ of Ericson's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **TW: Mentioned Sexual Harassment/Assault**

Above deck, Clementine looks up seeing smoke coming out of the funnel, realizing they started the boiler. She sneaks along the boat, moving fast to get to AJ, as she overhears the conversation between him and Lilly.

“....I've known Clementine since before this all started. She'll come around. You will too, once you see what we have to offer. Plenty of food, comfortable beds for you and Clem. You can even share a room.”

“Fuck off, fear.” Clementine runs to cover behind some boxes. She overhears one of the raiders talking to Lilly about how they saw something she needed to see.

“Found this in the herd.” Clem sees Gina take off a walker mask revealing James sitting up against a wall.

“No wonder there were so many. Thought you were clever, leading those walkers here. Or was that Clem’s idea? Nothing to say?” Lilly taunts. Clementine sneaks behind the mast, trying to get an angle on Lilly and avoid being spotted.

“You don’t fucking scare me.”

“Is that so?” Lilly lectures AJ about his people don’t fight for anyone but themselves and how they’re too broken to fit into a community. Clementine watches from behind another stack of boxes.

“Kill it.”

“No!” AJ protests. As Gina raises the rifle to take aim, AJ moves and stands in front of James. Lilly raises her hand, signaling her not to shoot, Gina lowering the gun.

“AJ. Get out of the way,” she commands.

“No. Don’t hurt James.” Lilly crouches down at eye level with AJ.

“And what you’re you going to do about it,” she points a finger at him. AJ grabs her wrist, and bites her on the finger, Lilly howling out in pain. The other raider raises her rifle at AJ. James takes advantage of her distracted and tackles her to the ground. Using the commotion, Clementine runs out of cover and rushes at Lilly, tackling her to the ground. The impact knocks Lilly’s pistol off of her, sending it flying a few feet away. She climbs off top of Lilly to grab it, but she grabs her by the hair, throwing her to the ground.

As Lilly approaches her, Clem kicks her knee, Lilly falling on top of her, choking Clem as she tries to get away. After Lilly punches Clem in the face, AJ grabs Lilly by the arm, trying to stop her. She elbows him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Distracted, Clem elbows her in turn, knocking her down as well, as she backs up to the wall.

She stands up and draws her knife in time as Lilly stands back up and charges at her, pinning her to the wall. Clem struggles to stab at her, her wrist restricted by Lilly as she moves her arm out of the way, making her drop the knife and punching Clem in the face and tossing her to the railing, proceeding to strangle her. AJ picks up the discarded knife and stabs Lilly in the leg and she kicks him away. Clementine repeatedly kicks the knife in her leg until she finally releases her. Seeing the gun a few feet away, they both try to grab it, AJ picking it up first and aiming it at Lilly. Realizing how this was going to end, Lilly tries to surrender.

“AJ, wait! I give up. I’ll give up. Put down the gun, I'll let everyone leave. My crew and I will leave, we won't bother you anymore.” James having knocked out Gina, throws her rifle away and approaches AJ.

“AJ. Lower the gun,” he pleads. AJ doesn’t answer and glares at Lilly, as she still pleads for her life. James urging him to stand down.

“You don’t have to do this. Please.”

“Just give me the gun.”

“Don’t you fucking dare, AJ.”

“AJ!”

“I don’t want to die.”

“Lower the gun, AJ” Clementine tells him. AJ looks at her in shock and defeat, relenting and giving James the gun.

“Okay.” Clementine sees Lilly take the knife out of her leg and standing up, approaching James.

“James! Watch out!” she warns. James turns around in time and blocks Lilly’s attempt to stab him, only getting stabbed in the shoulder. The two wrestle each other until the ship rumbles and shakes violently, breaking them up. Clementine realizes the bomb is going off. 

“Shit, the bomb. AJ!” With what strength she could muster, she runs towards AJ but the bomb goes off and knocks her backwards as she blacks out.

* * *

Clementine wakes up a third time for the night after getting knocked out on the beach. She sees a silhouette approaching, and as it gets closer notices it’s a walker. Before it’s too late, Louis kills it with a rock.

“Louis! You made it!” AJ cheers.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now,” Clem says giving him a hug.

“I think I have some idea,” he says as they pull apart. Nearby, they hear a scream, as they see Sophie on the beach getting grabbed by a walker. Louis nods at Clem to go save her as he goes to kill a few approaching walkers. Clem goes to help her, but Sophie kicks the walker and crawls away.

“Are you okay?”

“I think I need a mirror to see if I still have my eyebrows. Other than that, just peachy,” she says smiling as she clutches her rib. “That could’ve been worse.”

“Where’s Violet and Minnie?”

“Wish I knew. Minnie took off with Louis and Aasim. And I got separated from Violet after the explosion.”

“Clem!” Sophie and Clementine see the remaining raiders surrounded by the herd, sneaking over to take cover and hide with Aasim who was joined up by Louis and Minerva.

“Oh, thank god,” Aasim cries out. Minerva peaks out from behind cover.

“Okay, too many walkers,” she panics.

“Stay cool. We knew this would happen. We just need to get off this beach.” Clementine looks around and sees Willy firing arrows at surrounding walkers behind a cart connected to a horse that Ruby was riding. “Look! They brought the cart around.”

“Ruby! Willy!”

“Come on! We’re getting out of here!” The shouting gets the attention of the raiders and sees them trying to escape.

“There’s no end to these little shits. Put ‘em down.” Gina aims at Willy and fires. He ducks down in time and gets pinned down, none of them able to go anywhere with them firing.

“Clem! Do something.” She picks up her bow and arrow and fires, shooting Gina in the neck. Sullene sees Clementine as she falls, aiming her pistol at her and firing. Amidst the crowd, Violet watches the chaos unfold. The raiders were a lost cause at this point and she was now technically free from them. Knowing it was suicide trying to deal with all the walkers, she spots an opening among the walkers and runs off towards the forest. Sullene sees her retreat, and sees it as a betrayal to the Delta.

“Hey. Hey! You get back here!” She picks up the rifle that Gina had dropped and fires at Violet. The first shot just barely misses her foot, the second hitting her in the side, causing her to stumble, but she still keeps running in the forest. The gunshots lure the walkers and they devour Sullene.

“Violet’s gone.”

“What?” Minerva peaks out from behind cover.

“No. I mean she ran into the woods. We’ve got to leave. You guys head for the cart, I’ll cover you. I’ll make a break for it as soon as I see an opening.” Everyone but AJ leaves for the cart, Clem shooting walkers allowing the group to make it to the cart safely. As they reach the cart, Minerva waves at her and signals for her to come over. The path between them is crowded with walkers and the horse gets spooked, ready to leave. Clementine and AJ head in the opposite direction towards a clearer path toward the edge of the forest, unable to make it through. Minerva falls into the cart, as the horse takes off and Ruby guides it back to Ericson’s.

* * *

Clementine and AJ take shelter in a cave, taking a moment to catch their breath. Clem looks at AJ to make sure he was alright.

“AJ. You okay?”

“I didn’t see James,” he answers. Clem looks at him with worry, also concerned about their unique walker friend.

“Me neither. I’m pretty sure he made it out.”

“Yeah. Right.” Clementine searches around in the dark cave, looking for something to create a light with. Near a river within the cave, she finds what she needs to create a torch, and another ‘Disco Broccoli’ toy and a geode. Lighting up the cave, she sees that the water is moving too fast for them to cross the river.

“Are we going to cross?”

“Yeah, just need to find something to use,” she answers AJ, looking up and seeing a log resting nearby. She walks over to it and pushes the log into the river, as it floats down getting stopped by rocks. Clementine gestures for AJ to cross first. After he makes it to the other side, she crosses the river using the log, jumping to safety at the last minute as she suddenly notices a walker fall on top of it, causing it to shake. The walker, and the log float down the river, as Clementine and AJ continue further down the cave.

As they get further down the cave, they see multiple tunnels leading in different directions. Clem sets the torch down, looking for a way out.

“AJ, do you see a light down any of the tunnels?” Hearing no response from him, she turns around and walks up to him seeing him staring at the walkers filling up in the back.

“AJ?”

“Why did you tell me not to shoot Lilly?” Clem placed a hand on his shoulder, unsure of how to answer.

“AJ, I-”

“I thought we were supposed to kill the bad people!” he explodes, “you say don't be soft, but everything you do messes with my head! Be strong! Be brave! If something wants to hurt us, shoot it right in the head!”

“AJ…”

“Doesn’t that mean Lilly, too? You killed Abel. And, you burned him with a cigarette! And you banged his head real hard on that desk! You killed that guy when we were sneaking on the boat! You didn't have to, but you did! What made him different from Lilly?”

“AJ, please. That’s enough,” Clementine pleads out, sounding on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m just scared of something taking you away. Aren’t you scared of that too?”

“Listen, kiddo. Everyone’s scared of dying. Especially of what’s after,” she confesses to him. AJ turns around and stares at the torch.

“Clem, I don’t want the people I care about to leave. I believed you when you said I was a murderer. But now, I think murder just means protecting the people around you. Sometimes you try to be big for everyone, but you’re still just a kid too. So I’ll help you.” Clementine takes in what AJ said, thinking that part of what he’s saying made sense. To an extent.

“I need you to trust me to tell the good people and the bad people apart. And you’ll let me decide for myself.”

“Okay.”

“Really?”

“You deserve my trust. But promise me you won’t be happy about it. I feel like you enjoy killing,” Clementine cautions.

“Killing doesn’t make me happy.” AJ and Clem embrace in a hug. A wind blows from one of the tunnels, leading to the way out. Clem picks up the torch, walkers growling nearby. Clementine heads down the tunnel, AJ following behind.

“Come on.”

* * *

The duo exit the cave, leading into the forest. As they leave, the wind blows, putting out the torch. Clementine drops it to the floor as it was of no use now. Clem uses the direction of the shore as an indicator of which way the school is, as she and AJ make their way back. They walk in relative silence for a few minutes before they hear heavy breathing and harsh gasps nearby, suddenly seeing a trail of bleeding. Clem cautions AJ to stay back as she follows the trail. It leads to Violet, slouched up against a tree, clutching her stomach.

“Ah, fuck,” she gasps out.

“Violet?”

“Well, you win. If you want to finish me off, then do it. No one’s stopping you,” she snaps.

“What? I’m not here to kill you.” Violet violently coughs, spitting out a bit of blood, looking at her incredulously with her remaining eye.

“Then what _are_ you doing?”

“Trying to get home.” An idea forms in Clem’s head. Not an idea, more of a realization as she already made a promise. “You can come too if you want. I imagine it’ll be a lot harder getting back to the Delta at this point and the rest of them are a lost cause.” She extends a hand out to Violet. She stares at her with apprehension, unsure if she’s being serious, thinking it over. Violet slowly reaches for her hand, Clementine helping her stand up due to her gunshot wound.

“Are you going to be okay?” Clem gestures to the wound. Violet puts more pressure on the wound, reflexively hissing in pain.

“I’ll live,” she deadpans, “it’s not deep, just kind of, grazed. I’ll be fine.” Her words didn’t do anything to ease Clem’s worries, but she decided not to press. Kenny got shot and lived. She got shot herself and lived. Louis got shot twice and lived. AJ got shot too. And out of all of them, both Kenny and AJ got shot in the stomach which is where Violet was wounded, and it had been almost half an hour ago, so she should be fine. AJ and Clem, now joined by Violet, continue through the forest in the silence, making their way home. Violet speaks up, suddenly breaking the silence.

“I can’t believe I’m going back.”

“Huh?”

“To Ericson’s. It should feel like I’m going home, but I’ve been gone for almost a year, I don’t know if it’ll feel the same.”

“Well, if it helps, I don’t think much has changed since you were there. Aside from, less people,” Clem tries easing her anxiety.

“Right. Brody is dead. And Marlon and Mitch. Assholes.” Clem does a double take, looking at her in shock. “Marlon sold me out to save his own ass and Mitch, he was just a dick.”

“Sounds like you hate your friends,” Clementine wondered aloud.

“Only because they hate _me_. Look, I don’t hate everyone at the school, but I’ve had enough people let me down in my life, that I know when to cut ties.” The trio continue walking in silence until they reach the edge of the forest, approaching a bridge.

“Not everyone at the school hates you. Sophie was the most adamant about you coming home. And Louis didn’t say much, but there were a few times he mentioned it’d be nice if you came back,” Clementine speaks up.

“Ruby told me she missed Violet too, when she was treating my wound,” AJ adds in.

“They really said that?” Violet questions.

“Yeah. Pretty much.” All three of them approach the bridge, moving carefully, in case that it gives way at any moment. They cross over an abandoned truck sitting in the middle of the bridge, seeing a large gap on the other side of it. AJ looks down at the large drop down, back up to the other side of the bridge.

“That’s far.” Violet peers over the edge herself.

“Should be able to jump it. It’s not that far.” Clementine looks at Violet’s bleeding wound on her side.

“Are you sure you can make it? We can find another way around.”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me,” Violet rolls her eye in annoyance. Clementine casts one last glance at her stomach before letting it go.

“Alright. But I think you should let AJ and I cross first. Just, as a precaution.”

“If it helps you sleep at night.” Clementine and AJ walk towards the edge of the gap, Clem picking him by his underarms.

“You ready?” AJ nods in confirmation. Clem takes a step back and tosses AJ over the gap, as he lands on the other side. She exhales in relief, glad that he made it across. AJ steps back to make room for Clem and Violet to land. Clem takes a few steps back to get a running start. As she gets close to the ledge, she leaps across the gap and safely lands on the other side. She turns around to see Violet still standing behind.

“Are you sure you can make it?” Clem calls out. Violet peers down over the edge of the gap, then back up at Clementine.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” Violet takes a couple steps back and leaps over, the impact of the landing traveling over her body, sending a wave of pain to her abdomen, as Violet keels over gripping her stomach.

“Shit. Are you okay?” Violet inhales a deep breath before standing back up. Clem notices the blood stain on her shirt is now slightly bigger.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Come on, let’s go. We’re almost there,” she walks off brushing past Clementine. She looks down at AJ who only shrugs at her. They both follow her behind without another word. Half an hour or so passes as the trio still wander aimlessly through the forest, none of them having said anything since the bridge. Suddenly AJ speaks up as James’ barn comes into view.

“Look! James’ barn! We can rest there.” Clem looks at Violet who looks on the verge of passing out. Worried for Violet’s sake, they make a stop at his barn.

“Good call, AJ. Come on.” As they get closer, they see James standing outside, seemingly sulking. He looks up as he hears them approach, his expression changing into delight.

“Clementine! AJ! You guys made it. I-” he pauses mid-sentence seeing Violet with them.

“We’re glad to see you too James. I hate to ask another favor, but can we rest in your barn?” Clementine asks.

“I- uh, sure. No problem.” He opens the door for them, leading them inside, now that his ‘walker collection’ has cleared out. Violet sits herself down against a hay bale, wincing in pain. AJ runs up to James and hugs him, catching him off guard.

“James! You’re alive.”

“Ah- Yes. I’m glad to see you too,” James looks at Clementine and smiles, thankful she honored her promise not to let AJ become a killer. “I’m sorry for leaving you two behind. I tried to go after you, but I couldn’t get through the herd. Even with my mask. I couldn’t see you with all the walkers and they were getting out of hand. Even for me. So I had to hope for the best and came here to see if you would’ve come here first. I was going to head to your school by nightfall if you didn’t show up by then,” James apologizes.

“Don’t worry about it. Our plan was to leave with the others, but we got separated and walkers were everywhere, so we took a detour.”

“I see. But what about…” he trails off, looking behind her at Violet, still holding her stomach, looking like she was fading in-and-out of consciousness.

“Violet. She used to live at the school before she was traded away. I need you to head back over there and get help. She’s been shot,” Clem explains. James looks at Violet with apprehension, before looking back at Clem and nodding in agreement, willing to help out. Clementine stops him before he heads out.

“Wait! James. Before you get back to the school, you might want to lose the mask. Don’t want a repeat of last time.” He nods in discernment before leaving the barn. AJ looks back and forth between him and Clem, before running over to her.

“Clem! Can I go with James? I want to see the others. Let them know we’re okay.” She crouches down at eye level with him and smiles.

“Okay. But be careful. And listen to James.”

“I will.” With her permission, AJ takes off and follows behind James. Clem walks over to where Violet is and sits down next to her.

“You could’ve gone with them. Or we could all head over there now,” she gripes in pain.

“You need to rest. And I’m not going to leave you here by yourself.” Violet chuckles in amusement to herself. About ten minutes go by as the two sit in silence of James’ barn before Violet is the first one to break the silence once again.

“I honestly thought you were going to leave me to die back in the forest.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. You didn’t know me, you had no reason to, so I figured, why not?”

“Well, I didn’t promise anything to anyone or was trying to prove anything, but when Sophie proposed the idea of you coming home, I thought to myself, ‘well, maybe it can happen. I don’t know how likely it is, but if there’s a chance, let’s bring Violet home. I think after a year, she’d probably want to come back.’ Even if I didn’t know you, or if you’d rather stay.” Violet scoffs at her last remark, having rather be anywhere else than with the Delta.

“The whole world has gone to hell, but being with them is like going to the inner circle.”

“What do you mean?... you don’t have to answer that.” Violet stares off into space, debating whether she should unload onto someone she just met. But for some reason, it felt like she could trust Clementine.

“You know, most guys have been shitty even before the world ended, but afterwards when consequences died with it, they got even shittier,” she spit venomously, “they think they can just do whatever they want. No matter how unwarranted or uncalled for. They say and do shitty things, make shitty jokes, and say what no one wants to hear. ‘No, I don’t care how many people you’ve fucked and no, I’m not going to suck your-!” she vents, freezing when she realizes what she said and how much she was revealing to Clementine. She looks at her who’s staring with eyes widened in horror. Violet shakes her head.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to unload all of that on you.”

“Violet. I am so sorry that happened to you. That’s really fucked up that happened to you, and you didn’t deserve that.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it. The catcalling, getting flashed, the insults, I couldn’t take it anymore and I _begged_ for the day I could leave the first chance I got. And when I saw everyone getting killed, I thought, ‘well, good riddance. I’m free of them.’ But I was also terrified. Being surrounded by walkers, I thought I was going to die.”

Clementine sheepishly scratches the back of her neck, responsible for the idea of bringing the herd to them. She peers out the window of the barn, seeing it was getting dark soon. Right on cue, Violet lets out a yawn, prompting a laugh out of Clem.

“You should get some rest. James will probably be back soon.” Violet slowly shuts her eyes, falling asleep immediately, resting her head on Clem’s shoulder. She doesn’t object as she rests her head on top of Violet’s, staying up to watch for James and AJ to come back with help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, so the 'slow burn' tag was a fucking lie. 13 chapters in and I'm just now lighting the fucking candle  
> for these two to interact. Why are you guys even still reading this?
> 
> But in all seriousness, thank you to everyone that has left a kudos and commented.  
> I'm glad you're still reading and enjoying this. For reals this time, what have you enjoyed about the story so far?
> 
> also I finished this at 2am btw.


	14. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes going back home isn't as easy you'd think.

Violet fluttered her eye open and woke up on an old mattress. Upon getting up she noticed she was in her old room. She sits up and winces in pain, noticing bandages wrapped around her midriff. The second thing she notices is Clementine sitting at the desk in the room reading a book.

“C-Clementine?” she croaks out. Her throat felt like sandpaper. Clementine perks her head up and diverts her attention towards Violet.

“Violet. You’re awake!” Clementine closes the book and walks over to Violet’s bedside.

“Ugh, hardly. Uh, how long was I out?” Violet groans, rubbing her head.

“Two days.” Violet widens her eye in surprise.

“Two days?!”

“Yeah. You were pretty out cold. Everyone was kind of worried about you.” Violet swings her legs over the bed and stands up, grimacing as the movement sends pain up her stomach.

“I’m back in my old room…” Violet comments.

“Well yeah, it was your room when you left, and now since you’re back you can have it… I hope you don’t mind sharing a roommate though. Marlon kind of set us up here when we arrived. I figured I shouldn’t kick you out of your own room,” Clementine explains. “AJ and I can move into a new room though if it bothers you…”

“No! Uh, I mean no, it’s fine. I haven’t had a roommate in a long time. And after everything, I think I could use the company.” Clementine nods in understanding, knowing she was referring to the Delta. Violet takes in her old room and notices all the new knick-knacks strewn about.

“It’s definitely a lot more ‘colorful’ since the last time I’ve been here.”

“I figured I’d do a little decorating and liven the place up. And you know… make it my own.”

“I like it.” Clementine and Violet stand in awkward silence for a moment before Clementine speaks up.

“Come on, Omar made lunch. You’ve got to be starving.” At that moment, Violet’s stomach audibly growls, much to her embarrassment.

“You read my mind.”

* * *

Walking out into the courtyard with Violet felt oddly reminiscent of the first time she walked out to the courtyard with Marlon, to Clementine. Except this time she was in charge. Once everybody got back to the school, they all unanimously agreed, even Minerva, that Clementine was best suited to take over as leader.

“This was a mistake. I shouldn’t be here,” Violet spoke up. Clementine stopped in her tracks, looking at Violet with concern.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I’m just nervous, I guess. I mean, what do I even say to everybody? _‘Hey guys. I’m back after a year of being a child soldier. How’ve you guys been?’_ ” Violet scoffs.

“You may not believe it, but everyone did miss you. I once told a friend the same thing I think you need to hear now: It’ll only be weird if you make it weird. Just talk to them,” Clementine tries to reassure. Violet chances a glance at a table in the middle of the courtyard with all the kids sitting and laughing while eating, before looking back at Clementine.

“I know but, it feels like trying to squeeze back into your old kindergarten chair. You’ve been in it before, but you don’t fit in as well as you used to and hard to get comfortable.”

“You still fit in just fine. Now talk to them.” Clementine and Violet approach the table with all the kids sitting in it. Willy, Aasim, Ruby, and AJ on one side, Omar, Louis, Minerva, and Tenn sitting on the other. And Sophie sitting on the table. Louis is the first to notice the two approaching and squints, not sure if he’s seeing right.

“Violet…?” The others turn around and see that sure enough, Violet is standing just a few feet away.

“Hey guys…” The Ericson’s kids sit still in shock as their mouths hang open, until Tenn gets out of his seat and runs up to hug her, nearly knocking the wind out of her.

“Violet! You’re back!” Violet slowly reciprocates the hug, still feeling on edge as now all of the attention is on her.

“Hey, bud. It’s good to see you too.” As the two pull apart, Sophie jumps off the table and charges at Violet.

“Violet!”

“What the-” Violet wheezes out in pain as Sophie tackles her to the ground, trapping her in a big hug.

“You have no idea how much I missed you,” Sophie almost cries.

“I can’t breathe, Soph,” Violet gasps out. Sophie gets off of Violet giggling and extends a hand to help her up. Violet accepts her help to stand up and dusts herself off. Violet notices Ruby walk up to her with a bowl in hand.

“Welcome home, Vi.”

“Uh, thanks,” Violet awkwardly replies, gingerly taking the bowl. She soon becomes aware of Minerva’s presence. They both awkwardly stare at each other for a bit before Minerva speaks up.

“I’m glad you’re back home, Violet.”

“Appreciate it,” she replies flatly.” Aasim always seeming to read the room clears his throat.

“Louis, Willy, would you two mind helping me take down the rest of the traps in the admin building?”

“But we-” Willy objects. The truth was that they took all of the remaining traps down yesterday.

“Now.” Willy relents and follows Aasim, while Louis sighs in defeat, casting one last look at Violet before heading inside. Ruby and Omar follow suit and come up with their own "excuses" to dismiss themselves. Omar left to clean the dishes, and Ruby needed to check the greenhouse.

“We have the greenhouse, again?” Violet asks.

“Yeah. We have Clem to thank for that,” Sophie pipes up. Violet looks at Clementine incredulously, while Clementine sheepishly rubs the back of her neck.

“It was no big deal. I just cleared it out because we needed barbed wire. It wasn’t even overrun. It was literally three walkers.”

“Clem, stop being so goddamn humble. A lot of things have changed around here for the better because of you.” Violet scoffs in jest at Sophie’s remark, side eyeing Clementine.

“Looks like there’s a lot I’m going to have to get to know about you?”

“We have time,” Clementine answers. Sophie gives Violet another big hug.

“I’m really glad you’re back Vi. I want to talk more, but I'm ready to turn in for the day. Hopefully, we can catch up tomorrow?” Sophie begs.

“Sure... We can try.”

“Awesome. Come on, Tenn.” Tenn smiles and waves goodbye to Violet before following his sister back to their dorm room. Minerva looks back and forth between Violet and her siblings.

“I missed you,” is all Minerva says before running off to catch up with Sophie and Tenn. Violet sighs and shakes her head in disappointment.

“Same old Minerva,” she mutters. Clementine walks up behind her and places a hand on her shoulder. Violet looks at her with a slight smile.

“Probably not the welcome home party you were expecting, but it’s better than nothing, right?” Clementine quips. Violet slightly chuckles, shrugging her shoulders. “You still haven’t eaten yet,” Clementine points out the bowl of food that Violet was holding, now lukewarm.

“Oh. Uh, can we just head back to… our room. It’s kind of cold out.”

“Uh, sure. Come on, AJ. It’s time to head in,” Clementine tells AJ, who's been silently watching the whole interaction the entire time. AJ wordlessly gets out of his seat and follows Clementine and Violet back to the dorms.

* * *

Back in their room, Violet wordlessly eats on her bed, Clementine writes something in a notebook at the desk, and AJ sits on the opposite bed playing with an Etch-a-Sketch. Silence fills the room as none of them say a word. Soon, the silence becomes suffocating to Violet, and she places the bowl on the dresser, causing a clattering noise that gets AJ and Clementine’s attention.

“So, ‘boss,’ you’re in charge. What’s the plan for tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?” Clementine asks, setting down her pencil.

“Well, I figured there’d be some kind of supply run or some job that needs to be done around here,” Violet huffs.

“Actually, I gave everyone time off to recover. We’ve been working since we got back, and they’ve all been working so hard, I figured I should give everyone a break. Louis and Sophie definitely need it. With the raiders taken care of, and I doubt they’ll be back anytime soon, we can take some time off,” Clementine explains. Violet glares at her before glancing at the floor.

“What the hell happened to Louis?”

“He got shot. In the arm. And the leg.”

“Hm.” Another silence filled the room, except this silence was thick and filled with tension, neither of the girls knowing what to say. AJ had long stopped drawing, watching the two, and decided to speak up to break the tension.

“Hey, Clem, can we go fishing tomorrow? Even though we don’t have to, but, I like fishing!”

“Sure, AJ. We can go fishing. What do you say Violet? If you want something to do, you can join me and AJ.” Violet doesn’t respond and looks back and forth between AJ and Clementine, and then out the window, noticing the sun had set by now.

“Yeah. That’s fine.” Clementine gives her a worried look but doesn’t press. She looks out the boarded up window and sees the night sky. Getting up out of her seat, she walks over to the dresser and sets her cap down.

“Time for bed, Alvin Junior.” AJ lights up and sets the etch-a-sketch down on the floor and scoots over closer to the wall to make room for Clementine. She climbs into bed and ruffles his afro before casting a look over to Violet, sitting up in her bed.

“Are you going to bed?” she asks worriedly.

“Uhm, I think I’m going to be up for a bit. I’m not tired yet.”

“Alright, then… Goodnight Violet.”

“Night Clementine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're used to my once a month update and you're wondering why it took almost two months and  
> where I've been, sorry about that. Life in general and I was working on another story. also depression™ hit  
> and was really bad during the week of Valentine's where I just didn't feel like working on the other story I was writing.  
> That, and I just didn't have time.
> 
> Hopefully I'll be probably be back in the swing of things now. Until next time.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by an ask answered by Kent Mudle.
> 
> kmudle.tumblr.com/post/181606416611/if-marlon-had-to-trade-another-kid-besides-clem


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